Film Fatale: Party Girl and the Existentialism of Your Early 20’s
Sober January hits and you’re slumped on the ground watching the raindrops drizzle down your window, a window that is breeding mould around it at that, and you take a deep breath of damp air. Remember a mere few months ago when you were unstoppable? A socialite if socialites had no money. You pick up your phone to doom scroll, but something stops your thumb in its tracks… Party Girl has been added to the criterion collection. You can now vicariously live through the coolest on screen girl from the past 30 years and not have to lie to the 30 day pledge you committed to on an app.
“I would like a nice, powerful, mind-altering substance. Preferably one that will make my unborn children grow gills.”
Party Girl (1995) directed by Daisy von Scherler Mayer follows Mary, played by the incredible Parker Posey, a fun loving social butterfly who’s freelance (read: unemployed) and inevitably lands herself in jail in the first 5 minutes for partying and is bailed out by her librarian godmother. From here, we see Mary go through the existential dread of your early 20’s - battling her innate desire to be silly with her other innate desire to find stability and purpose. Mary is naive, idealistic, carefree and problematic, or at least she was before discovering the Dewey Decimal system. The film captures that essential moment that happens to us all around the age of 22, glaring up at a pile of copies of The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus whilst hungover and never being the same again. As the conversation between Mary and her DJ flatmate Leo goes:
“One must imagine Sisyphus happy.”
“Bullshit. He's miserable.”
“He doesn't have to be. He accepts his fate.”
“You're telling me if you name is Syphilis and you spend your life lugging a fucking rock up a hill you wouldn't be miserable?”
“I think I'm an existentialist, I really do.”
It doesn't matter if you’re a male academic in your 60’s or a New York City club kid in your 20’s, the principles of life are still the same. One day the Deee-Lite must turn off and the thoughts will inevitably turn on. Mary must face the party you wish you were never invited to: becoming a functioning member of society.
___STEADY_PAYWALL___
Existentialism aside, Mary’s outfits are unforgettable. The montage where she goes to Mustafa to order her falafel with hot sauce, a side order of baba ghanoush and a seltzer is monumental. Never before have I been so enthralled by coloured tights paired with mini skirts. The shoes, the coats, the hair… Mary’s outfits are a narrative within itself. Her vintage Jean Paul Gaultier can now only be found in the dreams of Depop fashion girlies. From head to toe she is encapsulating an era, a culture of the party, mixing the mismatched charity shop style with the high fashion elite of New York City. She could be in the background of Whit Stillman’s The Last Days of Disco (1998), doing poppers just left of Chloë Sevigny.
“Do you realize how broke I am? What do you want me to do? I don't have a job. I'm a loser. Shoot me.”
As Director Daisy von Scherler Mayer put it: “We want to make a movie that stars all the people that are the side characters in other movies.” This couldn’t be more true. The reason this film is so enjoyable, aside from the obvious impeccable soundtrack, fashion and flawless comedic timing, is that Mayer knew what she was doing with these characters. Too many times films are made about ‘outsiders’ by successful male directors living in a beautiful condo in Hollywood (See: Euphoria) and it misses the mark. With Party Girl you can tell the people behind it lived and breathed being reckless and silly in the city. It’s a shame they didn’t have more time for all the possible storylines for the characters; I wanted to see a day in the life of Rene, the alcoholic club owner, I wanted to know more about Venus, the gorgeous dancer who locks eyes with Leo as he Djs, and I wanted to know Mustafa’s journey on becoming a teacher. I was thinking it would make a good TV show, but then I stumbled on the pilot episode of Party Girl from 1996 starring Christine Taylor, and thought maybe it’s good to leave things alone.
“Karl and I connected that night. From the essence, from the ancient centre of our beings.”
“The two of you were on ecstacy. It dries out your spinal fluid.”
Mary is the type of girl that could only exist outside of social media. A part of me became overwhelmingly envious of those who got to enjoy the prime of their lives without the looming horrors of Being Online and having conversations with people which might as well be reading out infographics back and forth until you’re satisfied that the echo chamber is echoing. (Although there are plenty of people still partying, still living life similarly to Mary, taking the executive decision to log off. Good for them.)
That’s not to say the film is all perfect, Mary’s cultural appropriation party makes you recoil and there’s a moment of horror where she’s almost sexually assaulted by her British ex boyfriend - things that make you reconsider if this way of living is actually as fun as it was depicted. It turns out an excess of drugs, lack of principal and direction can lead to unfavorable situations. Who would’ve known!
Could a film like this ever be made again? Probably not, and that’s what makes it so special. It’s interesting that it was the first film to officially premiere online, because it feels like it captures the last days of pre-internet culture. Similar to Scorsese’s After Hours (1985), it captures the chaos and beauty of the city, the excitement of being alive and how it feels to live life for the night.
Words: Charlotte Amy Landrum
