IN THE SWING OF THINGS YOUNG GUNS MAKE THE SCENE IN A FILM ABOUT RETRO CLUBS.

Byline: Bob Strauss Daily News Film Writer

The ``Swingers'' boys aren't making the retro club scene much anymore.

They don't need to. Jon Favreau, who wrote and stars in the romantic/buddy comedy that's been knocking 'em dead on the film festival circuit; debuting director Doug Liman; and co-star Vince Vaughn may have captured the pulse of L.A.'s Cocktail Nation for current and future generations to laugh at.

But these self-mocking scenesters did such a good job of it, they're already on career tracks that are likely to outlive the martini-soaked swing dance revival.

Favreau has finished acting in another movie, ``Dog Town,'' is preparing to make his own directing bow with the western ``The Marshal of Revelation,'' and is writing features for both Universal and Disney. Vaughn has moved from the microbudgeted lounge act to a prominent role in the cast of Steven Spielberg's no-expense-spared sequel to ``Jurassic Park,'' ``The Lost World.''

And USC film school grad Liman is getting all those Hollywood meetings he'd hoped ``Swingers'' would bring him. They're just a lot more positive than he expected.

``I dropped everything else I was doing - not that I had such glamorous opportunities - because I had to make this film,'' the 30-year-old Liman said. ``My expectations were that I was going to have a great resume piece. When I'd go for a studio interview, they'd see the film and go, `Wow, that's great. I can't believe I've never heard of this before.' I didn't have any faith in the system, but I knew it would be a great film because I had two aces in the hole: Jon and Vince.''

Favreau, 29, not only based ``Swingers'' on the sillier details he'd observed at the Derby, the Dresden and other East Hollywood nightspots where Rat Pack consciousness once again rules. He also insisted that his close friends, like Vaughn (they both wore Notre Dame helmets in ``Rudy''), play his character Mike's close friends in the movie.

But another reason the truly excellent swing dancer Favreau is shying away from the club scene these days is that too many people already think that ``Swingers'' is autobiographical.

``The story's not true,'' Favreau said. ``But I set it in my neighborhood, made it sort of about the guys I knew and the clubs I hung out at. The car, my car. The apartment, my apartment. We actually shot it in all of the places I really live and go, so now it's very hard for me to convince people that it's not my life and I'm not that guy.''

The embarrassing thing isn't so much the scene business, even with its overemphasis on made-up slang (money means excellent; babies are, well, babes). The thing is, Favreau's humor-impaired, aspiring comedian Mike is so hung up on the girl he left behind in New York, he keeps making a complete fool of himself with the women he meets out here.

``I have a few,'' Favreau, whose perpetual sad sack expression makes David Schwimmer's face look optimistic, said of loves lost. ``I take it pretty hard. But I wanted to exaggerate that, too. It just seemed like an interesting point, especially when you first come out here and are so lonely, left everyone behind and then have to deal with the rejection of the acting career.

``That crucial, critical six-month period, after which you sort of rediscover who you are again after letting go of that girl and angle a bit more into the future - I thought that was an interesting time to explore.''

At its core, though, ``Swingers'' is as much about friendship as about romance and club-hopping. Indeed, the whole thing came about because Liman's friend and housemate, producer Nicole LaLoggia, introduced Favreau to the director and they hit it off.

As for Favreau's buddy Vaughn, who Liman already describes as his great star discovery, the charismatic Chicago actor views solid friendship as a valuable counterweight to the celebrity many predict is coming his way.

``My objective is not fame,'' Vaughn, 26, said. ``For me, it's very important to do a good job. If Spielberg includes me in his film, that's a big honor for me and I want to make sure I do well for him. The other thing is, I'm blessed to have a nice group of friends right now that I've always been friends with, most of whom are not actors. I'm a guy who likes the local bar; I never understood driving across town to stand in line outside a club.''

While Vaughn's Trent is ``Swingers' '' most dedicated, money-spouting, phone-number-collecting party reptile, his foremost goal is trying to get his friend Mike out of his funk. This makes Trent as likable as his outrageous combination of self-confidence, self-delusion and pure trendoid fervor make him hilarious. Not surprisingly, the actor has some shrewdly observed insights into the whole, Tony Bennett-fueled scene.

``I think a lot of young people come to L.A. because they want to be in movies,'' Vaughn suggested. ``But what happens is, the acting doesn't go real well, it's hard to break in. So they start going to these nightclubs. Somehow, not waiting in line to get into a bar or getting a free drink from the bartender starts to satisfy their need to be a celebrity or something.''

After LaLoggia introduced Liman to Favreau and his script, Favreau was soon taking Liman to his favorite spots, and they came to share similar views of the Cocktail Nation.

``I don't think it's happening for any other the reason than the clothing looks great and the music's phenomenal,'' Liman said. ``I thought Sinatra was something my parents listened to, but after going to these clubs and making this movie, I realize that this stuff's pretty cool. We're rediscovering something that was good in the first place; I don't think it's a fad because there's actual substance behind it.''

``This generation is sort of grasping,'' Favreau explained. ``They feel sort of bound by political correctness. They came into their sexual maturity in the age of AIDS. Drugs are not an innocent thing like they were in the '60s. The economy's been awful.

``People are tired of complaining about everything and everybody is ready to just buck up and move into the future,'' Favreau continued. ``There's a simpler way of looking at things. I mean, I'm tired of rap music and its violence and grunge and suicide; I just don't like it and a lot of my friends don't like it. For the most part, people of my generation just want to go out. Men want to dress like men, women want to dress like women - the Generation X androgyny thing was really boring to me. I don't want loud music blasting. I like the whole lounge scene.''

But not at the moment. ``I'm a little overwhelmed by the situation, so I tend to stay home and write a lot now,'' Favreau admitted.

``I'm in the Hollywood Hills crowd, really,'' Liman confessed. ``There's a whole dichotomy between that and the Eastside, Los Feliz-Derby-Dresden vibe.''

``It would be pathetic for me to go in the Dresden now anyway,'' Vaughn realizes. ``I'm the guy in the movie, and I'm walking around like I own the place? Maybe when I'm older, overweight and disheveled, I'll be grabbing 19-year-old girls at the Dresden, saying, `Did you see ``Swingers,'' baby? You're gorgeous, baby!' ''

CAPTION(S):

Photo

Photo: Vince Vaughn, left, actor-writer Jon Favreau and Pat rick Van Horn haunt East Hollywood's retro swing-dance clubs in ``Swingers.''