How to Talk to Girls at Parties

I managed to watch this online through my Roku on the Kanopy streaming site through my public library's subscription.

To mention that this is a very unusual movie is a big understatement. It starts normally, for a British setting, with the usual goofiness, but then everything changes when a group of three friends crash a party full of people in what appears to be a very strange cult. This is not the kind of movie I'd like to watch often but as a one-off it is very entertaining for those of us who can appreciate the very unusual.

Most of it takes place in the 1970s but there is a scene at the very end in 1992, apparently some new ones start to show up. In the credits is a statement, "No aliens were harmed in making this film" which gives a hint to what we just watched.

It has some of my favorite actors, including Elle Fanning, Nicole Kidman, and Ruth Wilson, all dressed strangely and playing very strange roles. It was a bit disconcerting to see Kidman and Wilson in such nontraditional roles.

Bizarre. Immaculately bizarre. An ambitious empty shell that struggles to develop its themes and characters. The equivalent of banging your head to The Sex Pistols whilst being surrounded by gymnasts in tight Lycra. It seems Mitchell tried desperately hard to achieve cult status for his film. Mixing absurdist sci-fi with an emerging music movement that swept good ol' Croydon. Unfortunately he misses the mark. A punk enthusiast meets a mysterious girl at a party and only has a certain amount of time to introduce her to the world of punk rock. During that allotted time, a romance blossoms that would transcend space itself.

The underlying problem that polluted this well-intentioned project is the screenplay. Goslett failed to understand that the merging of two genres, especially one of them being a romance, relies on relatable and humanistic characters. Fanning, who I'm sure wasn't acting in this (that's just her normal self...), gets a pass for portraying a stellar extraterrestrial. Sharp on the other hand, well his character was a mess. No fault of his own. Mitchell tried divulging into his backstory, which was instantly forgettable, and failed to create a spark between the two leads. For the most part, there was no emotional resonance. It wasn't until the final twenty minutes, when punk matriarch Kidman's army of little punk rockers raid their contemporary "tourists" abode, that the tangible love started to stick. Too late I'm afraid. Was all too forced for my liking.

I do however admire Mitchell's unique vision, almost reminiscent of Gilliam's work, which suited the artistic aesthetic that was being exhumed. A wondrous experience that made me scratch my head whilst being hypnotised. Stupendous use of colour. Just a shame that its entirety doesn't really stick, although undoubtedly will be viewed as an ambitious cult film in the future I'm sure. Admirably ambitious is the best description. Though Nicole Kidman, man, she would make a crazy rocker that's for sure!

The movie is just weird in every way possible ,, and i think that what made it appealing and interesting to watch .. The story grows from a punk kid loves to rock to meeting that alien girl from the cult "of California :D" and they start living the punk life together.. The ending was so unexpected and surprisingly emotional.

The story-line is well built and the events from start to finish are easily fathomable,, the casting was just amazing ,, loved Nicole Kidman and Ruth Wilson .. Nicole was so cool ... and Alex Sharp and the other two co-stars did an amazing job too.

Recommended if you love weird sci-fi 80's style rock hip movies :D ,, if you don't love this movie you might actually hate it a lot ,, it just doesn't go in between.

Enn (Alex Sharp) is a disaffected youth in late 70's suburban London. He and his friends follow the local punk scene. He writes his zine and has trouble talking to girls. The boys crash a party after the club. They find the people there strange and Enn believes them to be a cult. Zan (Elle Fanning) decides to leave the group to find unique experiences with Enn. The group go to see advent-guard artist Queen Boadicea (Nicole Kidman).

This has some fun and some weirdness. The problem is that it doesn't have quite enough fun nor enough weirdness. Director John Cameron Mitchell is best known for Hedwig and the Angry Inch. I did check out the Neil Gaiman graphic short story which has two regular dudes from an all-boys school and the story takes place mostly at that party. I'm sure Mitchell added the punk element which actually added color to the story. Elle Fanning is definitely a beauty which explains why Enn would tolerate her weirdness. The story should really take place over one night. That has the tendency to intensify the narrative. It would also allow Kidman to join the movie earlier. I only laughed once when the aliens blocked the hallway in formation. Otherwise, this is an odd little movie which fails to elevate.

It's absolutely, not even close to being one of the best movies I've ever watched but my god do I love it. Not mind blowing but somewhat bizarre. The ending is beautiful but everything before that is so weird and uncanny. I spent the whole movie duration asking myself "wtf?". It's probably the most unique movie out there, you'll either like it or hate it and call it silly or for weirdos, I think most people will and understandably so. Looking at the title and cast is very deceiving, which is what I did, and you need an open mind to enjoy it. It's a misfit movie, I guess that's how punks are stigmatized by society; and this movie is a love story between a punk and an alien. It really doesn't fit in well into any genre, it's the 70's, there's aliens, there's funny bits, there's music, there's love, but if you're looking for a sci-fi, comedy, musical or romance movie this still really isn't it. It just a rogue piece of the puzzle that doesn't fit in anywhere. That's why it didn't surprise me when I learnt that this was the oeuvre of the same person who wrote "American Gods", which I do love. There's nothing like that series, and there's nothing like this movie, they're ambitious originals. And I must say, kudos to Nicole Kidman because this feels like the kind of movie actors of her caliber would turn down and she didn't. It's not great, a little tweaks everywhere and bigger production budget could have made it better, but it's uniqueness(is that a word, sounds made up in my head) makes it worth a watch, I however wouldn't recommend it to anyone I know because I don't really know who the intended audience for the movie was. Because I don't know anyone like me, not in a "I'm special" sorta way, more like I'm sorta weird and so is this movie.