54 MPAA Rating: R Entertainment: +2 Content: -3

It's the late seventies and New York's disco Studio 54 is where the nobodies and the somebodies all clamor outside to be picked to party inside. Shane O'Shea (Ryan Phillippe), 19 years old, good looking and very naive, is the only one of his buddies chosen to enter Studio 54. That's when his lifestyle takes a dramatic turn from his dull blue-collar New Jersey neighborhood to the glitzy frenetic disco scene. Steve Rubell (Mike Myers), the club manager, takes a personal interest in Shane and soon hires him as a bus boy. Greg and Anita (Breckin Meyer and Salma Hayek), a young married couple and fellow employees, befriend Shane and with their help Shane learns the ropes quickly. He discovers easy sex, earns lucrative tips from offering patrons their drug of choice, and eventually learns that all that glitters in Studio 54 is cheap and tawdry. This all too real account of the disco craze may attract those wondering what really went on in "those places."

Steve Rubell made the rule, "there are no rules," for his club. A couple having graphic sex near the dance floor are ignored by other partygoers. Drug use abounds, and particularly pathetic is a kindly lonely old lady who shows up every night and gets high on pills. On New Year's Eve she overdoses. Bianca Jagger (Sela Ward) tells Shane the way to advance your career is through "accommodating" whoever has connections, so he willingly accommodates her. Soap opera star Julie Black (Neve Campbell) admits she will sleep with whoever promises her a part in a movie. Shane turns down her invitation to join a "threesome," but his promiscuity results in a venereal disease. Steve has an unnatural attraction for the handsome young bus boys and waiters, and promises promotions in return for sexual favors. Greg is repulsed by him and turns to drug dealing to finance Anita's dream of owning a dance studio. Foul language adds to the decadent flavor of 54 with 25 obscenities. There are at least 54 reasons to avoid 54.

Preview Reviewer: Mary Draughon
Distributor: Miramax Films, 375 Greenwich, NY, NY 10013