Riding the rollercoaster of '54'

Before you say, "The frat house next door," let's add the stipulation that these are people who are open to just about anything, who despise labels and conformity in any form.

Sorry, brothers.

No, the answer, unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), is nowhere. Especially not in Tucson. And even if some would have you believe otherwise, you won't really find it in New York either.

Sure, there are plenty of clubs out there that aspire to such heights, but there's never been anything to match what once was the unrivaled ecstasy of Studio 54.

In this day and age of anti-drug hysteria, AIDS scares and general cynicism, people just aren't willing to completely abandon themselves to the pleasure principle anymore. Not that that's a bad thing. But for the growing number of people who are turned on by the idea of a mostly sober lifestyle and the rewards of a monogamous relationship, a glimpse inside a real-life den of iniquity can be as fascinating as a look at life on Mars.

"54" director Mark Christopher has made it his business to give us this glimpse, through the eyes of Shane O'Shea (Ryan Phillippe), a kid from Jersey City who finds himself enveloped by the fast life when he goes to work at the infamous club.

While Shane's story is the product of a writer's imagination, the world it presents to us, as well as many of the people that inhabit it, was extremely real.

Mike Myers, taking a well-timed dramatic turn, plays Studio 54 owner Steve Rubell, the mastermind behind the unbounded success of the hottest New York City hotspot of the late 1970s.

The dreamland Rubell constructed for himself and his devoted club following was one where anything went, where the only rule was that you had to look good.

Sure, it was all superficial as hell, but the stuff of legend usually is.

People are, after all, attracted to glitz and glamour like moths to a flame. Just remember what happens to those poor moths.

And the stars did come out at night at Studio 54. Andy Warhol, Truman Capote and Princess Grace are just a few notables who cross the dance floor in the course of the film.

As the credits roll, actual photos from the club's glory days flash on screen, revealing the likes of Sylvester Stallone, Brooke Shields, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Gilda Radner alongside Rubell.

It really does all look like fun. If you're into that sort of thing. But, of course, it can get real scary, real fast. And for some, it did. Like a rollercoaster ride, once you got on, there was no getting off.

The only difference is that there were no warning signs at the start of this ride.

Today, Studio 54 sits empty, having gone through a number of incarnations since Rubell's arrest for tax fraud and its eventual closing in 1986. There's nothing left to see there, but the big screen can give you a window to the past, to a time when there was nothing else worth seeing except what was inside.

On the downside, if you want to take this ride, you have to follow Shane on the way, and his story, although engaging at times, is nowhere near as interesting as the setting for it.

As they say, truth is often stranger than fiction. For "54," that says it all.