How to Talk to Girls At Parties Review
R: Language throughout, sexual content, some drug use and nudity.A24, HanWay Films, Little Punk, See-Saw Films, Film 41 Hr and 42 MinutesDir: John Cameron Mitchell, Philippa Goslett, John Cameron MitchellCast: Elle Fanning, Alex Sharp, Nicole Kidman, Ruth Wilson, Matt Lucas, Abraham Lewis, Joanna Scanlan, Tom Brooke, Ethan LawrenceOh A24, how the mighty have fallen into weeeeeird territory. As if you weren’t a weird studio enough, just seeing your logo in front of trailers had me rushing out to the theater to see your films. Now, I’m probably going to walk with caution.
Young Enn and his best friends stumble upon a bizarre gathering of teenagers who are from another planet, visiting Earth to complete a mysterious rite of passage. That doesn't stop Enn from falling madly in love with Zan, a beautiful and rebellious alien who becomes fascinated with him. Together, they embark on a delirious adventure through the kinetic, punk rock world of 1970s London, inadvertently setting off a series of events that leads to the ultimate showdown between punks and aliens.THE GOODElle Fanning is just so pure and adorable in this. Her character Zan is this inexperienced alien from another world so she’s unaware of our culture. She’s smart but doesn't know much about us. Zan says the weirdest things but her delivery is so innocent so each accidental innuendo that comes out of her mouth just makes you go, “Aww”. She’s pretty much the equivalent to Starfire from "Teen Titans". Yeah, that’s her character from her dialogue to her personality; it's all the same as Starfire minus the special abilities. Other than that, Fanning is amazing. Performance-wise she carries the movie because she is the only character with individuality.
I never thought I’d see Nicole Kidman in a totally punk getup, but here we are. Honestly, there isn’t enough Nicole Kidman in this movie. By with the time she’s on screen, she’s having a fun time. Her charisma is top-notch and she is a joy to watch throughout. The film goes such a long time without having her onscreen that, when she becomes prominent as the film gets into its final act, you forget she’s in the film.The only clever thing about the writing is one running joke where the Brits all assume these aliens are Americans. They all just assume these aliens are Americans and who can blame them since this takes place during the time Warhol became a huge cultural influence. Then, in another scene, Nicole Kidman just tells Enn to fuck off for like, no reason. She abuses the guy for just standing and it’s funny.THE BAD
Alex Sharp does a fine job as the lead of Enn performance-wise. He is likable enough as a performer, but his character of Enn is incredibly bland. At first he’s this shy guy, far from being a ladies man, but at the same time is supposed to be this bad influence (or in context to the film, a virus) to Zan yet you never get the sense of that. Enn isn’t just way too charming, but is also too weak of a character to even be perceived as a virus to the audience. Sharp has good chemistry with Fanning but, because of her character being much more enticing, she’s running circles around him.Believe me when I say that this is a John Cameron Mitchell movie. It’s British, punkish, and so absurd. Hedwig made an angry film. Think if “Sid and Nancy” and “The World's End” had a love child and that child was going through a rebellious phase but is lost about it's purpose in life. That love child is this movie. With this being based off a short story with its own flair, Mitchell stretches out something that was short and got to its point into a feature film that attempts to balance way too many themes but never committing to one. It tries to be a love letter to punk, but then it tries to be a story about rebellion, then political democracy, and then a coming of age sci-fi story. Just pick one and stick to it. By having way too many themes you’re only confusing the audience.
If “How to Talk to Girls at Parties” taught me anything it is that some stories from famous writers shouldn’t be adapted by stylistic directors because they’ll stray from the source material and make it their own thing. Many films have done it before and this is one of those movies. If you’re going to watch a good movie based on a Gaiman story, you already have “Stardust” and “Coraline”. Go watch those.Besides this being a John Cameron Mitchell film stylistically, the writing is nowhere up to par with the visuals. The script feels as if it was written by a 13-year-old British teen who just discovered punk and watched way too many episodes of “Rick & Morty”. It is similar to how Zack Snyder’s “Sucker Punch” was a hyperactive over-sexualized fetish film. While this doesn’t feel as bad as that, the writing features crass humor that is way too juvenile and immature. And even then, the way these characters engage in conversation was uncomfortable to an extent that nobody would even say the things they say… and that’s coming from the humans not the broken-English aliens.LAST STATEMENTDespite Fanning carrying the weight of the movie with her performance, JCM’s “How to Talk to Girls at Parties” takes this short story and stretches it out to a puzzling sci-fi period piece that has no idea what story it wants to sell or the message it wants to say. This results in the overall film coming off as pretentious and misguided.Rating: 2/5 | 43%uper Scene: Enn V. Mom
