Delayed Reaction: How to Talk to Girls at Parties

Premise: Some British punks in the 70s stumble onto a group of aliens who are going through some sort of bizarre rite of passage on Earth.

 

I don't think anyone knows what to do with John Cameron Mitchell. What is his career? What should we expect from him? He debuted in 2000 with the cult hit, Hedwig and the Angry Inch. He used that momentum to get the infamous Shortbus made in 2006: a film most famous for incorporating explicit sex scenes into it. He then took a hard turn in 2010, making the Oscar-friendly, soberly dramatic Rabbit Hole. His next full movie is How to Talk to Girls at Parties, which almost looks like a step back. He returns to the loud, campy style of Hedwig but with most of the edge removed. By all accounts, How to Talk to Girls at Parties is a pretty light and tame movie. Other than some nudity, this is basically a PG-13 comedy. Part Encino Man, part Dude Where's My Car. How to Talk to Girls at Parties is the movie you'd expect Mitchell to make in order to get the attention and backers to make Hedwig. I don't think of the movie as a step back though. It's more of a settling down.

 

Overall, I quite enjoyed this movie. Elle Fanning gets to be charmingly weird. Nicole Kidman looks like she came to the movie with some ideas. A lot of the other aliens, like Ruth Wilson and Matt Lucas are clearly having fun playing dress up. The themes of the movie are anything but subtle, but I don't think it was trying to be over-clever about it. This is a very straight-forward movie. I like a lot of the character quirks. It's got some good punk music. It's a hyper-realized interpretation of the 70s' punk scene. It doesn't bother with crazy alien effects. They all just dress in different colors and that's it.

 

I wonder how this movie would've been received had it premiered at South By Southwest with an unknown director rather than premiering at Cannes with thoughts of Hedwig, Shortbus, and Rabbit Hole in mind. It feels much more like a Rotten Tomatoes 67% than a 47%.

 

Verdict: Weakly Recommend