Party Monster: The Shockumentary
Certainly a party. Certainly a monster. Not particularly shocking.
The story of Michael Alig, an Indiana transplant to NYC who became a big party promoter and started the “Club Kids”, then devolved into a morass of drugs and, well, just ick. Alig is interviews from prison where he is serving 10 to 20 years for manslaughter in the killing of Angel Melendez, one of the club kids.
While this was an okay movie, there are no sympathetic characters at all, except for Angel’s brother. Everyone, from Alig to his mother to his friends are all slime. Angel isn’t described at all, really, and there’s only one photo used and reused throughout the film. Angel’s murder by Alig is presented only has how it interrupted the party. He still is the party animal, even from prison. For some inexplicable reason, they all call Alig a monster, but he’s still the one they are most concerned with how he’s doing.
The film never answers any questions. We’re never told why Alig and his drugged out dealer friend killed Angel. He pleaded guilty, so there must be a reason. The smarmy, smug jailhouse interview of his just makes you want to slap him silly. He’s certainly presented as a monster, but the film does everything it can to portray him in a sympathetic light.
This club kid thing is something I was never really aware of, thankfully.
; would not watch again
September 29th, 2006 at 8:51 am
The documentary is good, but the “dramatic retelling” Party Monster (with the Home Alone kid and Seth Green) is a raging piece of shit. I couldn’t get past the first 20 minutes.
Quit while you’re ahead.
September 29th, 2006 at 9:09 am
Yeah, the documentary, as such, was pretty good although I really had an issue with the sympathetic portrayal of Alig and the other “kids”. Maybe they didn’t portray them that way and were honest about how they see themselves. It’s a fine line. The bottom line is they’re all a bunch of looosers. I’d much rather spend time at CBGBs.