Party Monster
(2002)
review by Big McLargehuge

I am not entirely sure why Bailey and Barbato made a fictionalized account of the life Michael Alig based on the book by his friend James St. James. And who are Michael Alig and James St. James you ask? They are two relatively obscure party throwers who dominated the Club Kids nano-phenomena in middle 1980s New York.

If you find yourself asking “What the hell is a club kid, and why do I care about this,” then I steer you towards another film named Party Monster, also based on the book Disco Bloodbath by James St. James, only this one is a documentary made five years earlier ALSO directed by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato and features interviews and footage of the same people portrayed in the fictional account by Macauley Culkin and Seth Green (among others).

The story of Michael Alig, who’s claim to fame was running series of successful night club promotions at a very young age in New York, AND killing and dismembering a drug dealer, is interesting only in that the story is such a weird snapshot of a night culture that came - went on the Jenny Jones Show - and went, quicker than a Manhattan cab ride.

Party Monster is a standard “Drugs are bad, mkaaaaay” movie in that all of the success Alig worked for went eventually up his nose in the form of heroin or into his lungs via crack cocaine, but within that it is also a buddy film highlighting the see-saw-like relationship between St. James (Green) and Alig (Culkin). Alig was the new kid on the block, an extremely effeminate gay teen who skipped off to New York from the Midwest and immediately immersed himself in the nightlife. After meeting party organizer St. James, Alig sort of learned the promotions game from him then took that knowledge to a much more intense and successful level.

Moving from seedy transvestite clubs and into the more mainstream yuppie discos, Alig was able to take the spirit of the old Studio 54 and it’s elite sex and drug laden bacchanalia and revitalize it within a club named The Limelight owned by cyclopean entrepreneur Peter Gatien.

The club kids were overdressed, sexually ambiguous, drug fueled dancers and partiers, and er… that’s about it. No, really, that’s all Alig and St. James do in the film. They talk about parties, throw them (which we get a few glimpses of), and spiral into ever increasing drug abuse that turns the entire final third of the film into one long “comb the carpet for the lost rock” scene.

Meh…

The story of Alig and St. James is pretty good as, unlike most “drugs are bad, mkaaaay” films there is always one straight guy, the “I told you so” guy so we can contrast just low the addict sinks. Party Monster doesn’t have one of these guys, St. James is an addict before Alig even meets him, and when Alig later turns to drugs when his boyfriend leaves they are sort of racing for the bottom.

But that’s enough about that.

The film looks nice and while primarily documentarians, Bailey and Barbato manage to capture the look and feel of nightlife in early 1990s New York well. They do like to linger on the overly painted faces of Green and Culkin though, so much so that after a while it was surprising to see them far enough away from the camera to notice their arms.

The makeup and costumes are taken directly from the photos of the actual club kids portrayed in the film..

I watched this one on Cable so I have no idea if there is a DVD, what format it’s in, or what extras might be on it. I do know that the Party Monster the film did make me want to seek out Party Monster the documentary.

So that’s something.

Oh, and drugs are bad, mkaaaay.