Review: How to Talk to Girls at Parties

Based on a short story by Neil Gaiman, How to Talk to Girls at Parties, at its best, recalls an unholy hybrid of Earth Girls are Easy, Romeo and Juliet, and Grease. It contains an unbridled and anarchic energy typical of director John Cameron Mitchell, a sweet and often moving love story at its center, some truly bizarre and psychedelic moments, and a wonderfully wacky and snarling performance by Nicole Kidman (whom Mitchell directed in his last feature, 2010's Rabbit Hole). Unfortunately, one has to slog through a first third that grates on audience goodwill.

It's 1977 and two invasions are significantly impacting teen Enn (Alex Sharp). One is the arrival of punk, which he and his mates Vic (Abraham Lewis) and John (Ethan Lawrence) embrace with a vengeance, running wild through the suburban streets of Croydon and, as one of his parents' friends dryly puts it, inciting a "revolution bankrolled by mum's spare change." Roaming the night in search of a party, the trio stumble upon a house full of very, very strange people who, unbeknownst to Alex and his pals, are a cult of intergalactic aliens who are all about conformity and cannibalism.

All, that is, except for Zan (Elle Fanning), who wants to be an individual and, upon encountering a smitten Enn and hearing him praise the liberating powers of punk to the heavens, wrangles herself a 48-hour furlough from her overlords. This is the point when How to Talk to Girls at Parties begins to endear itself for Fanning and Sharp establish Zan and Enn as destined but star-crossed lovers. There's a wonderful montage of the two as they spend the day together playing in the park, seeing who can jump higher, shouting into one another's mouths, and Mitchell abandons all the fripperies to delight in two beings surfing the wave of mutual connection together.

Yet the film keeps pinballing away from what should be its main focus of Zan and Enn and dwelling on incidentals. Sometimes it works as in the case of Kidman's Boadicea, if only because the actress appears to be having a blast and also manages to make tricky lines like "I've had 12 abortions and nothing to show for it!" both hilarious and punch-in-the-gut poignant. The same cannot be said for its observations on the aliens and their weird rituals, though one can well understand why Mitchell's attention was hijacked since they are an opportunity for him to express express deadpan theatricality, explore fluid sexuality, and basically let his freak flag fly and losing himself in a frenzied fantasia of punk psychedelia. It might have been fun for him but almost there, but not quite for the audience.

How to Talk to Girls at Parties

Directed by: John Cameron Mitchell

Written by: Philippa Goslett, John Cameron Mitchell; based on a short story by Neil Gaiman

Starring: Elle Fanning, Alex Sharp, Nicole Kidman, Ruth Wilson, Matt Lucas, Abraham Lewis, Ethan Lawrence, Stephen Campbell Moore, Tom Brooke