We’re continuing the theme of championing queer cult classics in our film section at the moment.
Last week it was Christina Ricci’s drawlingly cynical The Opposite Of Sex, and this week it’s Party Monster, the outrageous, surreal comedy/drama that captured a generation and helped shape club kid culture.
Now to the more discerning amongst you, Party Monster might seem like an obvious choice. Not only have we already seen it, but we live it, we breathe it, we ARE it. But a surprising amount people don’t have it in their repertoire of cultural references. The other day I complimented someone’s look in the smoking area of The Glory and said it was “very Party Monster” and they were like “what’s Party Monster?” Shocking!
Directed by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, Party Monster is pretty much the definition of a queer cult movie. It’s based on the real life of notorious New York club night promoter Michael Allig, known for his outlandish dress sense, propensity for class A’s and, erm, hacking people up. He hacked up his then boyfriend Angel Melendez and left his bits in the bathtub. Anyway now he’s out of prison and starring in a horror movie called Family Possessions, currently in production. Oh and he’s got a single out.
The film covers all these events and more, with Macaulay Culkin as Allig. It’s also got avant-garde fashion designer slash actress slash fascinator connoisseur Chloe Sevigny (GOOD EVENING AMERICA) and Seth Green as Allig’s best friend James St James.
The whole movie is absolutely absurd. It’s self-indulgent, contrived, completely unbelievable and mind-blowingly arrogant. Unsurprisingly, it was universally panned by critics on its release in 2003. But a few years later, people started to get it. Its absurdity and arrogance is actually genius, because it perfectly reflects its subject, and the sociopolitical milieu it’s set in (yes I just said “sociopolitical milieu”, I did A-Level Media Studies).
So if you haven’t already seen it, watch it immediately. It’s so ingrained in gay culture that you’ll feel like you’ve seen it already. Maybe you have seen it already. In fact, if you can’t be bothered to watch it, just go to a warehouse party in Dalston, it’s pretty much the same thing.
• Party Monster is available on Netflix.
