Kerry Hayes/Miramax Films (suite)

While the production notes for "54" list an impressive roster of vintage disco hits on the soundtrack, hardly any of them seem to have made it into the actual movie,which feels strangely truncated,both musically and dramatically How could a movie about the king of all discos not include a single note of music from the era's two reigning disco queens, Donna Summer and Gloria Gaynor?

Even in its abbreviated dance-floor scenes, "54" never surrenders to the beat. The film provides only scattered intimations of the tribal ecstasy, the beat-driven synergy of light, sound, drug-enhanced eroticism and the giddy narcissistic euphoria of imagining yourself at the center of the world, which was the essence of the Studio 54 experience.