the following review is rated CB for
completely biased because it's
impossible for me to fairly critique
something that I had a professional
emotional and personal experience
working on but you guys are in for a
treat with this review like Samuel
Jackson in Jurassic Park would say and
prepare for Luke in yellow latex and
it's not even fetish week. Hey guys so
today I'm gonna be talking about the
latest movie from cult legend director
John Cameron Mitchell who has given the
world such gems as Hedwig and the Angry
Inch shortbus and the massively under
seen rabbit-hole his latest film is a
genre blending sci-fi rom-com that's
based off a short story from someone
who's just as much of a cult legend Neil
Gaiman and it's called how to talk to
girls at parties
oh and I'm telling you right now it is
weird and best of all it stars yours
truly as a yellow latex wearing alien
called Danny warning this review may
make me sound like an effusive
narcissistic asshole so venture further at your own risk
oh guys there's so much I can say about
getting to work on a film like this but
I decided I'm gonna make a separate
video about my whole experience of
working on it and this video was just
gonna be a review of what I thought of
the movie itself so yeah I actually got
to attend the world premiere screening
of this at the Cannes Film Festival and
yeah that was an experience I will
treasure for the rest of my life but as
soon as I came out everyone family
and friends were asking me oh my god
what do you think of it are you gonna do
a review on it and I was like no there's
no way I can be objective there's no
possible way I can review this without
being biased but people just have kept
asking you what's it like what do you
think so I said okay I will do it
reviews I'm doing it for you now okay
I'm just gonna say what I think and then
make my piece of it and hopefully you'll
go watch it yeah here is what I thought
about how to talk to girls at parties
right so the best way for me to describe
the plot of how to talk to girls or
parties is to think of it as a sci-fi
version of Romeo and Juliet
but instead of Montague's versus
Capulets we've got punks versus aliens I
said this was weird right the story is
set in 1977 Croydon during the time of
the Queen's Silver Jubilee
and the story follows our punk
protagonist N which is short for Henry
who is played by Alex sharp and he's
also got two buddies called John and Vic
who are played by Ethan Lawrence and
Abraham Lewis after attending a punk gig
the three of them try to find this
so-called after party and they stumble
across a party which just so happens to
be the location for six different
colonies of aliens who are on the back
end of the intergalactic tour of the
universe and their last stop just so
happens to be Croydon of all places and
it's at this party where N meets this
alien girl Zan who's played by Elle Fanning
who is essentially my sister in the
fourth colony of aliens and our color is
yellow and Zan isn't happy with how her
colony has been behaving on this trip
saying that they've been acting more
like tourists than travelers she then
meets N and then explains to her the
ideology of a punk and the idea of going
against the established order really
excites her so she goes on this 48-hour
absence from her colony with N to have
this sort of journey of self exploration
and freedom and that's basically the
crux of the storyline it's a
coming-of-age rom-com about two
individuals from different worlds both
feeling very alien in their own bodies
and discovering who they are
oh yeah there's also this cannibalistic
ritual that the aliens partake in and
that kind of throws a spanner in the
works for their blossoming romance how
will these crazy kids deal with it well
that would be telling
so what still love about this film guys
well first of all one of the things that
I love most about this film is that it
truly is an original concept Punk's vs.
aliens yeah you haven't seen that before
yeah it may have a parallel to Romeo and
Juliet but it certainly is a unique albeit
bonkers concept for a movie so yeah it's
something original which is fantastic
and what's also amazing about this movie
other performances from Elle Fanning and
Alex Sharpe. Alex Sharpe is both awkward
and endearing so he makes for a really
likable leading man and Elle Fanning
also gets some really great emotional
moments in this film but also there's a
lot of room for fish-out-of-water comedy
and they really have a great dynamic
together and that's the sweet center of
the story really together they're above
effortlessly charming and hilarious this
film also boasts a feast of impressive
British acting talent you've got Ruth
Wilson Matt Lucas and Tom Brooks all
playing supporting parent-teacher roles
of the alien colonies the only downside
for them is that they don't get a whole
lot of screen time so their presence is
short-lived
also Nicole Kidman's in this movie and
once again she shows that she is not
afraid to get weird she plays this queen
of the punks called Boadicea who's
basically the den mother for all the
punks of Croydon and you can tell she's
having great fun her accents a little
wobbly in places but she got some really
great snappy lines and a stellar moment
with the Ruth Wilson's character I've
just realized saying Stella you're not
gonna get that until you seen the actual
movie but yeah
Stella watch it you'll understand what I
mean and the soundtrack for this film is
awesome it's a mix of seventies punk
jams with a few original tracks which
really have that brazen give no fucks
energy that this film really embodies
and the standout moment for this film
has to be when N and Zan share this duet
at this punk club John Cameron Mitchell
is weird unique directorial style really
gleams through in this scene as the song
builds to this what can only be
described as an acid tripping musical
orgasm it's a treat for the eyes and the
ears so now let's talk about where the
film has a few issues so despite this
for having some top-notch names in it
such as Neil Gaiman John Cameron
Mitchell and Nicole Kidman this is still
a low-budget movie and there are times
when you're watching where you can
really tell those of you expecting this
to be a special effects galore sci-fi
well you may be a little bit
disappointed because they really use the
special effects sparingly but one can
argue even with a modest budget there's
still a lot to admire oscar-winning
costume designer Sandy Powell who's used
to dressing Scorsese movies and Disney
films like Cinderella actually said that
she loved the challenge of working on a
film with a smaller budget even though
the aliens might not be covered in
flashing lights and antennae the PVC
color-coordinated colonies do stand out
plus it provides that harsh hilarious
juxtaposition of the punk characters as
well as highlighting the brash cultural
differences between American and British
culture as John says they must be from
California and another thing that does
seem arguably silly is the title of this
film whilst it does stand out its
relevance does seem a little bit
redundant after the first 20 minutes of
the film the actual party that the film
refers to
only lasts for about 10 minutes in the
first act then the narrative shifts its
focus to the romance between Zan and N
those of you thinking that this film
might teach you a step-by-step guide of
how to talk to girls and parties nope
this film is about as informative on
social and sexual conquests as J from
the inbetweeners so to sum up guys how
to talk to girls at parties won't be
regarded as John Cameron Mitchell's
best work however there is a lot to love
about this film in a time when most
mainstream cinema is now a tick sheet of
focus group marketing criteria how to
talk to girls at parties dares to be
something original outlandish and unique
its distinctive in style and its
ambitious in its themes of identity
sexuality and individuality the
performances are wonderful and it's
unapologetically fun it's not without
its faults but there's enough weird and
wonderful traits for it to find a
beloved following amongst the cult world
so how do I rank this out of 10 part of
me thinks it should be an 8 at the same
time by bias makes me feel like you should
give it a 7 so yeah I think I'm gonna
split the difference and give it a seven
point five out of ten but you guys want
to round up you can call an eight out of
ten but yeah I feel seven point five is
a fair rating given my biased
predisposition so yeah guys how to talk
to girls at parties has been picked up
for distribution but I don't know the
exact release date yet but I will do a
video on it when I do no more
information but I also release the
information on Twitter so if you want to
be updated as to when it's coming to
cinemas be sure to catch me here on
Twitter and yeah guys if you do enjoy
these videos please do me a favor like
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does help and yeah guys if you have any
questions about this film or what it was
like for me to work on this please just
let me know in the comment section below
but as always thanks so much for
watching guys for more things related to
movies TV and popcorn culture I'm Luke Hearfield and I'll see you next time
Fourth colony manifests -  individuality
