54

Synopsis:

An anthology film retelling the story of the famous Studio 54, a hot disco hangout for the social elite of New York. The movie follows several characters at once, some of whom are in desperate straits and on the verge of crashing

Quick Thoughts:

“54” is a queer film with a rather interesting cinematic history. Just before the film was released in 1998, the studio fired director Mark Christopher and forced a major edit of the storyline that forced major reshoots and essentially removed Shane’s bisexuality. It flopped. However a bootleg version that reincorporated the cut footage was shown at the OutFest film festival in 2008 – which drew enough attention that in 2015, the studio worked with Christopher to release a Director’s Cut that restored nearly 45 minutes of the original storyline. THAT is the version that I watched, and frankly it’s the one one worth watching. It’s not the smoothest cinematographically due to the major cutting issues, but “54” is a captivating film that draws you into the world of Studio 54 at it’s decadent heyday! This queer film is definitely worth watching, especially because it features a bisexual storyline.