How to Talk to Girls at Parties
- Director: John Cameron Mitchell
- Writer: Neil Gaiman; Philippa Goslett
- Producer: Iain Canning; Neil Gaiman
CGiii Comment
Well...this will certainly divide opinion!
John Cameron Mitchell has a reputation...and, that reputation seems to attract the big names, regardless of the project! Nicole Kidman can afford to do anything she likes, her career and bank account are extremely healthy. As for Elle Fanning, she's been making films since she was a baby, her career is heading towards the stratosphere [as is her bank account]...she does whatever she likes...whether it be a career-defining role...or, one that's just a bit of fun...
How to Talk to Girls at Parties is just a bit of [albeit somewhat muddled] fun.
Think: If Derek Jarman and Stanley Kubrick had decided to collaborate...throw in a bit of cheap Star Trek/Dr Who, a dollop of Rocky Horror...and, more than a passing glance at Nick Roeg's 1976 classic...
How to Talk to Girls at Parties is just a bit of [somewhat over-referenced] muddled fun.
If you get it...you'll love it. However, those who over-think and those who take themselves [and life] too seriously will probably deem it an abomination...it does tend to trivialise/idealise the whole Punk movement/scene/sub-culture...it is worth noting that both director and writer were mere pimply teenagers at the time of Punk's [r]evolution. All teens idealise, all teen trivialise! Fillmakers do best when they do what they know best!
So...if it's a non-serious, tongue-in-cheek, teeny-bop-punk rhapsody that you're looking for...you've come to the right place!
As bonkers as it is...we absolutely loved it!
Trailer...
The(ir) Blurb...
John Cameron Mitchell, director of the acclaimed films Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Shortbus takes us to an exotic and unusual world: suburban London in the late 70s. Under the spell of the Sex Pistols, every teenager in the country wants to be a punk, including our hopeless hero Enn. Hearing the local punk Queen Boadicea is throwing a party, Enn crashes the fun and discovers every horny boy's dream; gorgeous foreign exchange students. When he meets the enigmatic Zan, it's lust at first sight. But these girls have come a lot further than America. They are, in fact, aliens from another galaxy, sent to Earth to prepare for a mysterious rite of passage. When the dark secret behind the rite is revealed, our galaxy-crossed lover Enn must turn to Boadicea and her punk followers for help in order to save the alien he loves from certain death. The punks take on the aliens on the streets of London, and neither Enn nor Zan's universe will ever be the same again.
Cast & Characters
Ruth Wilson as PT Stella;
Elle Fanning as Zan;
Nicole Kidman as Queen Boadicea;
Matt Lucas;
Alex Sharp as Enn;
Stephen Campbell Moore as Record Exec;
Eloise Smyth;
Lara Peake as Wainswain;
Tom Brooke as PT Waldo;
Joanna Scanlan;
Elarica Johnson;
Alice Sanders as Spinning Jenny;
Joey Ansah as PT Bob;
Ethan Lawrence as John;
Abraham Lewis as Vic