The Last Days Of Disco (1998)

So with all this talk of a new Whit Stillman movie on the horizon, I decided to give The Last Days Of Disco an umpteenth viewing last night. It's a real shame that Last Days isn't more readily available, as I think it's his best [we're fortunate enough to own the super-rare DVD that came out for a couple months in the late 90s]. And the novelization that Stillman wrote afterward - how often does that happen?! - is a serious work in its own right, though also sadly out of print. Both the film and the book are chock-full of memorable dialogue, two examples of which I've transcribed here:

"'There is something depressing about [the Disney movie The Lady and The Tramp],' Josh answered, defending Alice's comment from the other side of the booth, 'and it's not really about dogs; except for some superficial bow-wow stuff at the start, the dogs all represent human types--which is where it gets into real trouble. Lady, the ostensible protagonist, is a fluffy blond cocker spaniel with absolutely nothing on her brain. She's great-looking but--let's be honest--incredibly insipid.' [...]

'Tramp, the love interest,' he continued, 'is a smarmy braggart of the most obnoxious kind--an oily jailbird out for a piece of tail, or whatever he can get--'

'Oh come on,' Charlotte said.

'No. He's a self-confessed chicken thief and all-around sleezeball. [...] What's the function of a film of this kind? Essentially it's a primer on love and marriage directed at very young people--imprinting on their little psyches the idea that smooth-talking delinquents recently escaped from the local pound are a good match for nice girls from sheltered homes. When in ten years the icky human version of Tramp shows up around the house, their hormones will be racing and no one'll understand why--films like this program women to adore jerks--"

'Gahd, you're nuts,' Des interrupted.

Josh glanced at him, clearly vexed; his voice was growing a little strained. 'The only sympathetic character, the little Scottie who's so concerned about Lady, is mocked as old-fashioned and irrelevant and shunted off to the side.' [...]

'Isn't the whole point that Tramp changes?' Des argued. 'Okay, maybe in the past he stole chickens, ran around without a license, and was not always sincere with members of the opposite sex. But through his love for Lady--and the beneficent influence of fatherhood and matrimony--he changes and becomes a valued member of that, you know, rather idyllic... household,' he concluded, rather moved.

'I don't think people really change that way,' Josh said: 'We can change our context, but we can't change ourselves.'"
(pg. 229-230)
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"'Do you know the Shakespearean admonition 'To thine own self be true'?' [Des] asked.

I nodded, of course.

'It's premised,' he said, 'on the idea that 'thine own self' is something pretty good, 'being true' to which is 'commendable.' What if 'thine own self' is not so good? What if it's 'pretty bad'? Wouldn't it be better not to be true to thine own self in that case? You see, that's my situation.'"
(pg. 299)
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And finally, as a tribute to my brother John, here's the speech from the end of the movie: