If you grew up in the 80s and loved partying, then you should look back fondly at that wonderful genre, the "teen movie". The Brat Pack (Rob Lowe, Demi Moore, Andrew McCarthy, Molly Ringwald, Robert Downey Jr., Judd Hirsch, Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy, Anthony Michael Hall, Matthew Broderick, Charlie Sheen, the list is endless) just kicked ass all over the place. Movies such as St. Elmo's Fire and Flashdance set the standards, before the definitive teen movie, The Breakfast Club,came along, a classic of teenage angst and rebellion that harked back to Rebel Without a Cause.
Once the teen movie kicked into motion, it was bliss for my generation. It didn't matter if the movies were rubbish or not. They were pure, cheesy nostalgia. They had idealised human emotions at their heart - beautiful women, fast cars, getting laid, playing practical jokes on oppressive teachers or authority figures and always succeeding. Anything that broke down the walls of Fascism.
Party Animal was so perfect for that era. It also differed slightly from the others because it was so extreme that it reached surreal and absurd proportions. The dildo that represented a cruise missile was an erotic cartoonish fantasy. Pondo reached new levels of madness minute by minute and nothing was too radical for him. I personally thought that Party Animal was visually imaginative with some fairly wacky brains at work - it could almost have been the South Park creators. But 80s hedonism and teenage Utopianism, albeit on a fairly male basis (the teen movies were mostly male fantasies), were summed up in Party Animal. Heightened reality, the inexplicable, and the urge for non-stop partying with no parents around were a way of life both in the movies of this time and for those of us who partied for real.
Movies such as this are regarded in an ironic, laughable way these days but that is because a lot of idealism has left youth culture now. There was innocence and naivety in the 80s and that created an unrealistic, yet joyous feeling of ultimate teenage fulfilment. The world was still there to be explored and challenged whereas now there is nihilism and lethargy is seeping in. There is nothing to look forward to. There is an attitude of "Been there, Done that" - there is no sense of moving forward. Only looking back. With a rather regretful nostalgia. The spirit of movies such as Party Animal needs to come back with a vengeance. It would stop all the sniggering and snide, postmodern in-jokes that are so redundant to progressive culture.
Once the teen movie kicked into motion, it was bliss for my generation. It didn't matter if the movies were rubbish or not. They were pure, cheesy nostalgia. They had idealised human emotions at their heart - beautiful women, fast cars, getting laid, playing practical jokes on oppressive teachers or authority figures and always succeeding. Anything that broke down the walls of Fascism.
Party Animal was so perfect for that era. It also differed slightly from the others because it was so extreme that it reached surreal and absurd proportions. The dildo that represented a cruise missile was an erotic cartoonish fantasy. Pondo reached new levels of madness minute by minute and nothing was too radical for him. I personally thought that Party Animal was visually imaginative with some fairly wacky brains at work - it could almost have been the South Park creators. But 80s hedonism and teenage Utopianism, albeit on a fairly male basis (the teen movies were mostly male fantasies), were summed up in Party Animal. Heightened reality, the inexplicable, and the urge for non-stop partying with no parents around were a way of life both in the movies of this time and for those of us who partied for real.
Movies such as this are regarded in an ironic, laughable way these days but that is because a lot of idealism has left youth culture now. There was innocence and naivety in the 80s and that created an unrealistic, yet joyous feeling of ultimate teenage fulfilment. The world was still there to be explored and challenged whereas now there is nihilism and lethargy is seeping in. There is nothing to look forward to. There is an attitude of "Been there, Done that" - there is no sense of moving forward. Only looking back. With a rather regretful nostalgia. The spirit of movies such as Party Animal needs to come back with a vengeance. It would stop all the sniggering and snide, postmodern in-jokes that are so redundant to progressive culture.