Party Girl (1995)

Strange, avant-garde, campy, AND feel-good. This movie walks a delicate line. Parker Posey is phenomenal, but so is the writing and directing which crams every moment and every character with witty humor. It's a cool, sly type of humor, for example: a librarian yells out "I've already got you on the list for the new Danielle Steele." Then we see that she's talking to a young black man who gives a confused look. Young black males are not Danielle Steele's targeted demographic, so is this a unique man who is embarrassed by being outed as a Steele fan or has the librarian confused him with someone else. That moment causes us to question our stereotypes and gives us a laugh at the same time. But that is one miniscule joke in a movie that has thousands of such bits. It's thoughtful, intelligent and a bit emotional when it comes to the main character's search for herself and her full potential. Bravo!

He-he-hello!! This is a really fun movie. Basically, in Party Girl, you have your fun-lovin', independent, early 90's New Yorker chick. Along with her party friends, she meets a mature Turkish Vendor. It is a comming of age story for those new adults who are searching for what they want to do. It is comforting to see a female slacker develop into a mature woman. Hope is given to all of us slackers who might feel like their only skills are being able to maintain while hammered and a nack for throwing good parties.On a side note, Parker Posey makes this movie great. I have never been a great fan of her, but this movie makes me just want to watch all of her movies. There are subtle manerisms that perfected her character. If you want good laughs and a fun time, make sure to watch this movie. Repeated viewings are a must.

"Party Girl" is all about Posey, tossed like a salad with a load of inconsequential side characters, as she labors to breathe life into her character; a shallow party animal who tries to get unshallow. This flick bears the scars of cost cutting, doesn't managed to conjure any reasonable semblance of a story, and wanders drunkenly with a make-it-up-as-you-go feel as it manages a few comic moments, a skosh of poignancy, and little else. The bottom line here is: If you like Posey, you may like this film. If you don't like Posey, you probably should pass on "Party Girl". (C+)Note - If you check the stats for this film you'll see a pretty obvious bell curve (Normal Gaussian distribution) with one obvious anomaly: The big spike at the 10 point mark. Since no one in their right mind could equate this dinky little indie to the best films ever made, one can assume the anomaly is either ballot box stuffing or the result of "cultists" or both. I only mention this because this is often seen on this website and can be misleading.

I work in a library and expected to like this movie when it came out 5 years ago. Well I liked Parker Posey a lot (she's a wonderful actress) and Omar Townsend was really cute as her boyfriend (he couldn't act but when you look like him who cares?) but the movie was bad. It wasn't funny or cute or much of anything. Posey kept the movie afloat with her energy. But she learned the Dewey Decimal system OVERNIGHT and then shelves tons of books to the beat of music??!!!!??? Come on! Also I did have a problem with the way she looked when she became a full-fledged librarian at the end--hair in a bun, glasses, no sense of humor--can we let that stereotype go please? Worth seeing for Posey and Townsend but that's about it. The TV series was much better.