Starring Macaulay Culkin, Seth Green. Written and directed by Fenton Bailey,
Randy Barbato. (STC) 97 min. Opens Oct 24.
From Seth Green and Macaulay Culkin wrestling for control of the narrative
during Party Monster's opening minutes, to Culkin's conversation with
a giant rat near the end, almost everything about Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato's
look at New York's crazed club scene is totally superficial.
In this case, that's a good thing. Party Monster is based on Disco Bloodbath,
James St. James' written chronicle of the Club Kids, a group of
audacious partiers who ruled Manhattan's Limelight club in the
late-'80s and early-'90s. Green plays St. James, whose status as the
circuit's preferred enfant terrible wanes when Michael Alig
(Macaulay Culkin) infiltrates the scene and proceeds to turn himself
into a flamboyant, androgynous messiah to a small group of drugged-out,
postmodern dandies.
The film follows Alig from his rise, through his relationship with superstar
DJ Keoki (Wilmer Valderrama), to his arrest for the killing of his drug dealer,
Angel (Wilson Cruz). Culkin still can't really act, but his creepy quavering
smile and hollow delivery make him perfect for the role of gingerbread psychopath
Alig, whose obsession with image enslaved his personality, and eventually his
humanity, entirely. (Alig still maintains a rather disturbing website, www.michaelaligclubkids.com,
from prison.)
Like Alig, the film is often consumed by image; it's art-directed to a
fault, and Michael Wilkinson's garish, fabulous costumes steal the show
from everyone wearing them. Often, the filmmakers get so caught up in
recreating the outrageous visual environment the Club Kids carried with
them that other elements of the film get left behind. Many of the
characters' relationships are underdeveloped (particularly the one
between Alig and Angel), and as Alig spirals into drug meltdown, the
picture gets mired in gloopy camera effects and visual wankery.
But the lack of substance ultimately adds to the mood: flamboyant unconcern
underlined by apocalyptic decadence. And while Culkin seems to be good by accident,
Green plays bored artifice with surprising range. Fittingly, it's his St. James
who finally wins the right to tell the story; more often than not,
Party
Monster is his film.