Director: Fenton
Bailey & Randy Barbato | Starring:
Seth Green, Macaulay Culkin, Chlöe
Sevigny, Dylan McDermott
Released: 2003
| Runtime: 98m
| Rating (out of 5):
½ |
|
Oh crap, where do I
start with this one? I'm pre-disposed to hating club kids. The whole
life of decadence thing just isn't my style. It makes me just want
to slap the shit out of all these fools. The fact that they ended
up killing each other is more ironic than anything else. "Ooh, look
at our free lifestyle, where all we do is take drugs, print up some
flyers, put on ridiculous costumes, have sex in club bathrooms and
leach off our inheritances. We're so stress-free and loving!" Ha,
bitches! And that's the gist of this true account of the rise and
fall of poor Peter Gatien and his gang of merry freaks. All judgment
of the party kids' lifestyle aside, the movie itself is like a giant
episode of The Jerry Springer Show--or some horrible off-off-Broadway
play presented in the basement of The Stonewall. It's hard to feel
for characters that are caricatures. Nobody in this film is sympathetic.
Nobody is somebody you'd ever want to be around. Nobody seems to have
any redeeming qualities besides being good with a makeup brush. Watching
it was like a major exercise in patience. I wanted to claw my eyes
out, vomit and strangle the actors all at the same time. The fact
that I actually got through the whole debacle makes me kinda proud,
actually. If the real guy Seth Green played, James St. James, was
even half as annoying in real life, it's amazing that Michael Alig
didn't murder him. You'd have thought Alig cured cancer the way he
pranced around feeling completely untouchable. He even boasted about
the murder he committed publicly, and essentially got ratted out by
his "friend" James St. James, on whose book this movie is based. It's
pretty awesome that all these messed up, moronic souls ended up turning
on each other in the end. The thing ends up being a complete mess.
I'm not stupid enough to judge a movie based on the personalities
of real people (and if they're likable or not), but there is something
so completely cheesy and false about the presentation of the material
that I just can't excuse it. Granted, the people themselves are completely
vapid, materialistic and soul-less, but why not explore that side
of it rather than concentrating on what is essentially the murder
of a drug dealer in an angel costume by a very stoned dude who liked
to dress up like an s&m Charlie Chaplin. I'm not sure of it's just
James St. James' point of view, but he goes very easy on Peter Gatien
in this whole thing, and essentially blames his best friend, Alig,
for everything. What a surprise that one egomaniacal douchebag in
his jealousy rats out his buddy in order to both further his standing
in the community in which he so badly craves acceptance as the leader
and gain favor with a guy who can actually do something for him. It's
all like a bad high school flashback, but with gay dudes in clown
make-up. [sundance channel]
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