How to Talk to Girls at Parties

Dir: John Cameron Mitchell

2017

***

How to Talk to Girls at Parties is directed by the brilliant John Cameron Mitchell and is based on a short story by the equally brilliant Neil Gaiman. However, it feels like an Alex Cox movie but with an ever so slightly bigger budget. Don’t get me wrong, I love Alex Cox, but we already have an Alex Cox. I don’t want to disrespect John Cameron Mitchell because he’s made one of my favourite films of all time (Hedwig and the Angry Inch) and a couple of other great films (Shortbus and Rabbit Hole). I really like him. It’s just that his representation of British punk in the 1970s isn’t very authentic. Alex Cox’s version would have been better. To be brutally honest, there are moments in the film that are seriously awful where John Cameron Mitchell’s greatness and Neil Gaiman vivid imagination are nowhere to be seen. However, there are also moments of absolute wonder. You could look at the film as being just a bit hit and miss, or you could view it as being a film of contrast. I’m somewhere in the middle, loving and hating it in equil measure. It needed to be less Alex Cox meets Ken Russell, and more Mitchell meets Gaiman. I thought Alex Sharp, AJ Lewis and Ethan Lawrence were great as the young punks – each played a real character rather than a stereotype – it is the writing that lets them down. It felt like someone trying to emulate Neil Gaiman, rather than being a direct adaption of his work. I felt that Elle Fanning understood her role better than most and the scenes between her and Alex Sharp are brilliant. The two young actors keep the film going and all the best scenes feature them. Nicole Kidman got the accent, look and attitude right but she was still Nicole Kidman playing a punk, rather than her character. She is friends with Mitchell and has him to thank for her Oscar, I’m sure she was keen on the role but I can’t help but think she was cast for her name. A cameo from a real punk legend might have been better, and as much as I didn’t hate her performance, her self confessed ‘Malcolm McLaren’ was far more Toyah Willcox for my liking. The film boasts the work of three-time Oscar winning costume designer Sandy Powell but I’m not sure she’ll be invited to the Academy Awards this year. Also, as much as I like Matt Lucas and Simon Amstell, I’m not sure their presence enriched the film any. Sheffield is also a million miles away from Croydon, in looks as well as distance. It all comes down to authenticity. It didn’t at all feel or look like 1977 and it didn’t feel or look like the work of Neil Gaiman (I thought the last five minute scene set in the 90s was more authentic than the whole 1977 side of the film). Sadly, we only see a glimmer of what John Cameron Mitchell is capable of. However, that odd glimmer is brilliant. The story is as nuts as you’d expect and hope from Gaiman and the core idea does come through. It is original and does keep the audience’s attention throughout. It is a quirky film that isn’t quite right and, rather strangely, I think I like that about it. There will be some that will always hate it but I do wonder whether this is a film that will have a slow cult following that will only be fully appreciated twenty years from now. I can’t think of many films that have such a contrast in awfulness and cinematic perfection. The visual direction itself is generally mediocre, if not a little under par but there are little windows of abstract beauty that are better than anything I’ve seen in many years of sci-fi. Also, the romance part of the film, perhaps the most important, is authentic and convincing. This is where we see Mitchell’s real strength. The idea of aliens visiting earth and getting involved in punk churns a whole host of ideas, and while I don’t think this was necessarily the best, it does work in a funny sort of way. I think expectations have effected many people’s opinions of the film. The original 18-page story is very popular and the film has been in development since 2010. While I, and I’m sure many others, envisioned the adaptation to look very different from Mitchell’s version, I do admire his unique otherworldliness. I would have liked to have seen more flare – and visually he is a much better director than this – but when all is said and done, I liked the film for it’s imperfections. I don’t love the film, but it never bored me. It did frustrate me on more than one occasion but it had my full attention throughout and I admired it. It also thrilled me once or twice. I think it is a future classic, definitely something the world will revisit in years to come. I do wonder whether budget was a key factor in the production but then again, a big budget might have ruined it, it was all about the story rather than the effects and throwing a load of money at it wouldn’t have been very punk either.  Watch it for Elle Fanning and Alex Sharp, Enn and Zan. Watch it because what it lacks it makes up for with charm. Watch it because every now and again it is utterly enchanting. My rating will probably go one way or the other on my next viewing, which will be a few years from now.