Review of Party Monster (2003) by Jeffrey M — 08 Dec 2012

Funny, self aware, and sometimes absurdly campy, Party Monster is a different sort of fact based crime drama. The humor mostly works, simply because it's so daring, and seems to have the right sort of actors for the job. The performances themselves seem befitting of the film's tone, with Macaulay Culkin certainly having some stilted moments, but it seems to work for his character, and is, perhaps, at least somewhat intentional.

The story-line itself takes a while to find its footing, and the third act never seems to really have the climax that it should. We never fully get a sense of why Culkin's character did what he did. This also speaks to the film's thin characterizations, we never fully emotionally empathize with them.

However, the film does enough right to make it watchable, with some good humor, a few good dramatic scenes, and some wild performances.

3/5 Stars.