I think it is really horrible to exploit a real and very recent murder like that. How insulting to the deceased. Yes, of course I'm going to see the film... Kabuki did the makeup. I just think touting this as "Good evil fun!" is awful. How sad that this is how the club scene is to be remembered. Art doesn't sell, murder does.
That poster is in such indefensible taste, I'm sure it was created to cause an outrage for the sake of publicity, which makes it all that much more offensive.
The trailor can now be seen on the partymonstersite.
Hideous. I guess on some level I can understand the fascination with Michael Alig's story, if for nothing else as a cautionary tale, but it's still sad that this is how the world will see the club scene of that glorious era. Alig was and is a really disgusting, horrible person.
Of course I'll still see the movie anyway.
Of course I'll still see the movie anyway.
Your right Miss U...Art doesn't sell, murder does.
I think the saying is.."If it bleeds, It leads"
I think the saying is.."If it bleeds, It leads"
When does this movie open in New York? Or is it already open?
My ex-boyfriend out on the West Coast sent me this review of Party Monster earlier tonight:
Now I'm really curious.
My ex-boyfriend out on the West Coast sent me this review of Party Monster earlier tonight:
quote:
we saw "party monster", by bailey and barbato tonite.
it was great - very colorful, humorous, entertaining and the acting was
excellent.
macaulay culkin will blow you away.
he is charming and strange in the not-quite sympathetic role of manic
club-promoter/murderer michael alig.
seth green as alig-cohort james st. james is uncanny in his on-point
portrayal
of a mannered, disco-twisted, prancing yet thoughtful shape-shifting queen
with rubber nose, fright-wig and glamour-length toenails.
green is brilliant - the best thing in the film.
the costumes are accurate and gorgeous.
culkin - often semi-nude and caked with glitter - is disturbingly beautiful
and naively erotic in jockstraps, platforms, football armor and oversized
clown
lips.
both he and the tanned, understated chloe sevigny should emerge as major
youth
(sex) symbols if this film is a hit.
marilyn manson stops the show as the messy, toothless tranny "christina", who
attepts to drive a tractor-trailer on acid and in 6 inch strappy sandals.
natasha lyonne is a scream as "brooke", a hideous, pierced, texan club-kid
mixing "drug salad".
don't be turned off by the "exploitation" quality of this film.
it's basically a true story - a cautionary tale about excess.
alig is revealed as incredibly inventive and engaging, but also heartless,
corrupt, decadent and damned to hell.
his anarchic "fabulousness" is documented, but his murderousness is never
glamorized.
fashion for days, sick laughs and perverse, exciting visuals -
- this movie rocks, y'all.
Now I'm really curious.
It opens Friday the 5th in NYC, LA and Chicago and then rolls out to other cities:
Party Monster Release Schedule
Zazoo, Sal, Jojo and I are catching it in Chicago on the 5th... Hoping to see ourselves on the big screen
We're in the "Operation Emergency Room", "Bloodfeast" and a dream sequence scenes. You may also see a dressed down Zaz and Satori in a seedy bathroom scene.
Party Monster Release Schedule
Zazoo, Sal, Jojo and I are catching it in Chicago on the 5th... Hoping to see ourselves on the big screen
We're in the "Operation Emergency Room", "Bloodfeast" and a dream sequence scenes. You may also see a dressed down Zaz and Satori in a seedy bathroom scene.
Has anyone seen it yet? It's getting a really bad tomato meter reading of 36 (rottentomatoes.com), and I heard reports from Sundance that it was awful (and the release date was delayed for the re-edit to try and make it better). If it's bad like Showgirls (one of my favorite movies) I'll totally see it in the theater, but if it's bad like Glitter, I'll wait for the DVD. They re-released "Disco Bloodbath" and are now calling the book "Party Monster". On a sidenote, I recently heard the rumor that Alig might be getting out of the hole next year for good behavior, is this true????
You're too old, you're somebody's mom, that outfit you wearin' is not the bomb.
You're too old, you're somebody's mom, that outfit you wearin' is not the bomb.
We saw it Friday. It wasn't good.
Seth Green and Manson are the best things in it, At least they make you laugh in several spots. Overall the documentary was MUCH better.
The whole movie was mostly bad dialogue and lots of closeups in small dirty rooms. The club scenes were choppy at best... It focused on the downward spiral, and didn't really capture ANY positive or creative aspects of the scene.
Wait for the DVD, that way you can pause it to see a few hand fulls of Motherlovers sprinkled here and there...
Satori
Seth Green and Manson are the best things in it, At least they make you laugh in several spots. Overall the documentary was MUCH better.
The whole movie was mostly bad dialogue and lots of closeups in small dirty rooms. The club scenes were choppy at best... It focused on the downward spiral, and didn't really capture ANY positive or creative aspects of the scene.
Wait for the DVD, that way you can pause it to see a few hand fulls of Motherlovers sprinkled here and there...
Satori
I saw it today. I don't know what to think. It definitely wasn't bad, but I can't say it was good either. I thought MacAuley Culkin was irritating, if it was just Seth Green it would've been a much better movie. For those who know the story (or lived it), the only reason to see the movie was for the recreations of the club scene "back in the day", but as Z&S pointed out above those scenes are pretty much quick camera pans across a dark room with an indistinguishable glimpse at a few faces. I know it's difficult to do full recreations on a limited budget, but instead of the chop shots they did for the parties, they should've just shown archival footage of the actual parties (which they did once in the movie for the subway invasion party). But if the movie is a string of archival footage, they should've just called it Party Monster - The Documentary. Oh, wait, they already did that five years ago....
My main "issues" with the movie are the same as with the HBO biopic of Gia. I really liked Gia before the Angelina Jolie movie was aired, and I had read "Thing Of Beauty" three times. The movie glossed over a lot of the backstory and omitted important details that would've taken a few minutes of screen time to explain, as well as combining several real people from her life into one person in the movie (two people were rolled into one "girlfriend" character in the movie, and her brother, a photographer key to her career and her high school boyfriend were combined into the "early boyfriend" character). The same thing inexplicably happens in the transition from "Disco Bloodbath" to the movie "Party Monster". While some elements in the movie correspond with James St. James' account of what happened, a lot of it didn't make any sense. They could've followed the book more closely in order to get a more accurate movie with probably the same budget and resources it took to just invent illogical scenes. The most obvious fudging in the movie was Chloe Sevigny's "Gitsy" character. I can't remember (the book is back in CA in storage), but according to the book I think Gitsy was a random club kid Alig hung out with, there was a drug dealer that came from the East Coast with Freeze (can't remember her name), and Jenny Taglia that Sevigny's character is based on. Mostly on Jenny Taglia (anyone know what happened to her???), so why not just have another person play Jenny in the movie? And Gitsy wasn't "discovered" in Dallas like the movie portrayed, although I think she was a friend of Brooke's (who is from Texas). The movie also gives a few minutes of screen time to Gatien's wife, who wasn't even mentioned in the book as far as I recall. While some scenes were true to the book --- looking for the non-existent rock of cocaine behind the radiator, the skrinkle language, the murder itself, etc., some things were a little ridiculous in the movie. Like the scene where a rat tells St. James how Angel was killed, when supposedly Alig told St. James while they were doing bumps in Alig's bed. What was that all about? And they didn't really explain why Alig was given a deal in order to get Gatien in the movie, which was kind of important to Alig's murder conviction in the first place. They could've done a much better, more cohesive movie. But then again, they could've done a much worse movie, too.....
Richie Rich is in two scenes (the fake Geraldo scene and the news report scene), as well as Amanda LePore and I think that was Nita next to Richie in the news report scene. The DVD of Party Monster - The Documentary is finally being released next month.
The movie did make me want to be more creative when I dress up to go out at least, so there's one good thing. I don't think I'll wear a pork chop, but I did have to remind myself how creative the club kids were back in the heyday, and it made me want to try and bring back a piece of the outrageousness into my look. I should've moved to NYC right after gradiating from high school, from what long-time residents tell me it was a great time for nightlife. I have heard some grumbling about what a terrible person Alig was, etc., but there were a lot of people who didn't live in NYC in bumblefuck places across the country who subscribed to Project X (including me) and were fascinated by the whole thing. People also grumble about how dead nightlife in NYC is right now. I think it's like the supermodel mania of the early '90s. It happened once with a small group of amazing models, and once they faded away it hasn't been recreated since. After Alig, the club kids faded away and haven't been recreated since. OK, am I rambling here? I'll stop now.
You're too old, you're somebody's mom, that outfit you wearin' is not the bomb.
My main "issues" with the movie are the same as with the HBO biopic of Gia. I really liked Gia before the Angelina Jolie movie was aired, and I had read "Thing Of Beauty" three times. The movie glossed over a lot of the backstory and omitted important details that would've taken a few minutes of screen time to explain, as well as combining several real people from her life into one person in the movie (two people were rolled into one "girlfriend" character in the movie, and her brother, a photographer key to her career and her high school boyfriend were combined into the "early boyfriend" character). The same thing inexplicably happens in the transition from "Disco Bloodbath" to the movie "Party Monster". While some elements in the movie correspond with James St. James' account of what happened, a lot of it didn't make any sense. They could've followed the book more closely in order to get a more accurate movie with probably the same budget and resources it took to just invent illogical scenes. The most obvious fudging in the movie was Chloe Sevigny's "Gitsy" character. I can't remember (the book is back in CA in storage), but according to the book I think Gitsy was a random club kid Alig hung out with, there was a drug dealer that came from the East Coast with Freeze (can't remember her name), and Jenny Taglia that Sevigny's character is based on. Mostly on Jenny Taglia (anyone know what happened to her???), so why not just have another person play Jenny in the movie? And Gitsy wasn't "discovered" in Dallas like the movie portrayed, although I think she was a friend of Brooke's (who is from Texas). The movie also gives a few minutes of screen time to Gatien's wife, who wasn't even mentioned in the book as far as I recall. While some scenes were true to the book --- looking for the non-existent rock of cocaine behind the radiator, the skrinkle language, the murder itself, etc., some things were a little ridiculous in the movie. Like the scene where a rat tells St. James how Angel was killed, when supposedly Alig told St. James while they were doing bumps in Alig's bed. What was that all about? And they didn't really explain why Alig was given a deal in order to get Gatien in the movie, which was kind of important to Alig's murder conviction in the first place. They could've done a much better, more cohesive movie. But then again, they could've done a much worse movie, too.....
Richie Rich is in two scenes (the fake Geraldo scene and the news report scene), as well as Amanda LePore and I think that was Nita next to Richie in the news report scene. The DVD of Party Monster - The Documentary is finally being released next month.
The movie did make me want to be more creative when I dress up to go out at least, so there's one good thing. I don't think I'll wear a pork chop, but I did have to remind myself how creative the club kids were back in the heyday, and it made me want to try and bring back a piece of the outrageousness into my look. I should've moved to NYC right after gradiating from high school, from what long-time residents tell me it was a great time for nightlife. I have heard some grumbling about what a terrible person Alig was, etc., but there were a lot of people who didn't live in NYC in bumblefuck places across the country who subscribed to Project X (including me) and were fascinated by the whole thing. People also grumble about how dead nightlife in NYC is right now. I think it's like the supermodel mania of the early '90s. It happened once with a small group of amazing models, and once they faded away it hasn't been recreated since. After Alig, the club kids faded away and haven't been recreated since. OK, am I rambling here? I'll stop now.
You're too old, you're somebody's mom, that outfit you wearin' is not the bomb.
I caught the movie and found it depressing.... in the sense that it was all too camp an panto when its really a dark sad tale.
Like most of Fenton and Randys stuff its on the edge of 'could be fab' but never quite makes it. They always pick the best topic but never quite fully pull it off.
I think they would have been much better at making a fab movie had they cast more unknowns in the main role (but then the majors would not have been as interested), as Seth Green and macauly are just too recognizable that you just know/think its all camp fiction and it wasn't it was real. (BTW I knew Alig and I had met Angel a few times) That whole time was a period of two extreems the wild creation of outlaw parties an absurd extreem costuming with the juxtaposition of the dark underbelly of Aligs twisted egomania, drugs, corruption and casualties... and the eventual murder and mutilation of Angel. It's a bleak tale but the movie tried to be more characature in its portrayal.... If you have ever seen the movie "Prick up your Ears" about Joe Ortons life/death ... that was fab true life of how funny camp et al his life was .. but successfully had that undercurrent/edge or it all falling appart and his eventual murder by his boyfriend.. pity that this movie didn't give you that feeling.
I would have shot and cast the whole thing different...
Think its really sad that there are folks in the movie theatre laughing at the camp panto when really its a sick dark twisted tale ... feel real sorry for Angels family...
I hope Michael never gets out....
Like most of Fenton and Randys stuff its on the edge of 'could be fab' but never quite makes it. They always pick the best topic but never quite fully pull it off.
I think they would have been much better at making a fab movie had they cast more unknowns in the main role (but then the majors would not have been as interested), as Seth Green and macauly are just too recognizable that you just know/think its all camp fiction and it wasn't it was real. (BTW I knew Alig and I had met Angel a few times) That whole time was a period of two extreems the wild creation of outlaw parties an absurd extreem costuming with the juxtaposition of the dark underbelly of Aligs twisted egomania, drugs, corruption and casualties... and the eventual murder and mutilation of Angel. It's a bleak tale but the movie tried to be more characature in its portrayal.... If you have ever seen the movie "Prick up your Ears" about Joe Ortons life/death ... that was fab true life of how funny camp et al his life was .. but successfully had that undercurrent/edge or it all falling appart and his eventual murder by his boyfriend.. pity that this movie didn't give you that feeling.
I would have shot and cast the whole thing different...
Think its really sad that there are folks in the movie theatre laughing at the camp panto when really its a sick dark twisted tale ... feel real sorry for Angels family...
I hope Michael never gets out....
Mcally culkin (spelled wrong ?)definately looked fuckable!!! that was my first impression.
Y-U-C-K. It was a curiosity, but how awful. Terrible script, WORSE acting. A total embarassment. What was up with Macauley's "gay accent"? And the rat sequence at the end?? I half-enjoyed the book. I went with no expectations, so at least this wasn't the let down that it could have been, but still...
And Christopher, I used to agree about Macauley...but now his lips have a more-odd puffiness to them that I just didn't find alluring.
And Christopher, I used to agree about Macauley...but now his lips have a more-odd puffiness to them that I just didn't find alluring.
He looks like Tweety Bird.
I still haven't seen it yet, I've been so busy lately.
But Nowhereboy I can tell you as someone who DID live in NYC during the Alig years, there was soooooo much more going on around town that had nothing to do with the club kid movement whatsoever, and the general public will not be seeing that portrayed in Party Monster (and, on artistic grounds, I can certainly understand why the producers chose to focus on one specific scene).
Those other scenes however are what I tend to remember more. Like Boy Bar, Squeezebox, Jackie 60, Save the Robots, Love Machine, and Channel 69 and Blacklips at Pyramid. And those were just the parties. The clubs themselves had so much to offer like Traxx, Mars, Club USA (briefly), the old Sound Factory, the Mike Todd Room at the Palladium, and the little tiny clubs like the old Crobar on 10th Street that had the best music .... it was completely off the hook and the beauty of it all was the sheer number of choices at your disposal. And how well everything co-existed. Back then it seemed at times that there were not ENOUGH clubs to hold all the people going out. The Alig/club kid movement was an important part of all that, but certainly not the be all and end all. Well, I'll get off the podium now.
But Nowhereboy I can tell you as someone who DID live in NYC during the Alig years, there was soooooo much more going on around town that had nothing to do with the club kid movement whatsoever, and the general public will not be seeing that portrayed in Party Monster (and, on artistic grounds, I can certainly understand why the producers chose to focus on one specific scene).
Those other scenes however are what I tend to remember more. Like Boy Bar, Squeezebox, Jackie 60, Save the Robots, Love Machine, and Channel 69 and Blacklips at Pyramid. And those were just the parties. The clubs themselves had so much to offer like Traxx, Mars, Club USA (briefly), the old Sound Factory, the Mike Todd Room at the Palladium, and the little tiny clubs like the old Crobar on 10th Street that had the best music .... it was completely off the hook and the beauty of it all was the sheer number of choices at your disposal. And how well everything co-existed. Back then it seemed at times that there were not ENOUGH clubs to hold all the people going out. The Alig/club kid movement was an important part of all that, but certainly not the be all and end all. Well, I'll get off the podium now.
Don't stop now girl...Tell the truth and you have it down pat. That's the way I remember it and I'm old! Where did it all go wrong? Was it the drugs and shallow sex that was prevelent to the time that destroyed it all or a darker more sinister force called...REPUBLICAN GOVERMENT?
And we just stood by, helplessly and did nothing.
And now look what we got.
BAH!
And we just stood by, helplessly and did nothing.
And now look what we got.
BAH!
We kicked your butts, Bobby Miller, and we'll do it again, if you'd get your sorry asses off the floor.
I went to a lot or Alig's parties at the Tunnel. They were major, I really loved the invites in those days, boxes of candy, plastic tools, etc. I remember he put one of those huge inflatable carnival things that little kids would jump in on the subway tracks. I loved his outlaw parties even more, they were so anarchist in the best anti-social/social engineering kind of way. But I have to say that the Disco 2000/Limelight scene years after that was not as alluring to me. I could see the change in it. You could tell the focus was swinging more toward the drugs and less toward the art of it. I did go a few time and had fun but it wasn't the same for me. I'm sure the fact that I had discovered Jackie 60 had something to do with it too. Nothing compared in my mind. I haven't seen the movie yet , but I agree with Lex about what else was going on at that time. a lot more.
Are you soused and posting again? Come home, dear, come home.
While I have to agree with the previous posts about the diversity and abundance of club life in the early 90's, I do believe the movie is only meant to portray a specific individual and a specific incident involving this person - Michael Alig. Much the same way a movie about Ted Bundy would feature co-ed college girls, the club kids were the environment of the movie. With that, I went into the movie expecting the worst and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. There were some (dare I say it) moving moments and presented a very sad story. Unfortunately, the writing wasn't very good and took away from the potencey of the horrific events that happened and there was already so much bad blood (physically and metaphorically) surrounding the events that it was hard not to be biased. I did think Seth Green gave an amazing performance though. I'm just waiting for the glut of "Party Monster" merchandise to hit Ebay (the OOP edition of "Disco Bloodbath is already selling for $80 and up on Ebay!) Can a lunchbox be far behind?