Party Monster

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

For all its decadence, it moves effectively from outrageous camp humor to stark pathos and in the process manages to be oddly touching. As for Culkin, he succeeds as an adult actor in completely unexpected ways.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

As stagy and awkward as some of the Warhol/Morrissey films of the early '70s.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Culkin plays Alig as clueless to the end, living so firmly in his fantasy world that nothing can penetrate his chirpy persona. Whether this is accurate--whether indeed any of the facts in the film are accurate--is not for me to say, but it works.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Culkin's Alig has the face of a debauched cherub, but the former child star never quite captures the charisma everyone swears was an essential component in Alig's success. Green's St. James steals the picture out from under him (poetic justice of a sort), and the supporting cast is nothing short of amazing.

Dallas Observer David Ehrenstein

Emotionally distressing yet compulsively watchable,

Film Threat D.W. Smith

Overall, I have to recommend the film for its alternate take on the whole "Leaving Las Vegas," "Basketball Diaries," "Less Than Zero" drug-induced tragedy genre.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

Taking on the sneeringly blase Alig may be a cagey career move for Culkin, but it's a disappointingly thin performance.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

Alig's superficiality seems to have been his only talent. His banality is a problem that the film can't overcome.

Portland Oregonian Kim Morgan

So what is the picture saying? With its uneven tone, flat direction (on bad-looking digital video) and varied performances, very little.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

His (Culkin's) performance is earnest and brave, but also mannered when it should be un-self-conscious, and awkward when grace is called for.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The plot is sordid and predictable -- indiscriminate nightclubbing leads to escalating drugs, promiscuity, and violence. Things perk up cinematically in the last few scenes, but by then it's almost too late.

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub

Most moviegoers will have trouble looking past Culkin the actor, who does a decent job of sending up youthful fame in a movie that's barely worth the effort.

Newsweek David Ansen

There isn't an ounce of genuine affection on display. Fenton and Barbato already made a documentary of the same title about Alig, and their fascination with this vapid, charmless pied piper of decadence remains a mystery.

Premiere Glenn Kenny

Better than I expected but still not entirely convincing. As a cautionary tale for demimonde-sters, though, it has its useful points--never argue about money while you're in a K-hole, that sort of thing.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

If this were witty, it might have qualified as a downtown version of "All About Eve"; if it were believable, I wouldn't have come away feeling that the actors (including Dylan McDermott and Chloe Sevigny) were wasted.

Variety Dennis Harvey

A colorful, lurid and ultimately so-what look at obnoxious personalities careening down their own road to ruin.

Village Voice Laura Sinagra

Party never gets rolling.

Chicago Tribune Mark Caro

In the end you don't believe what you're watching, and you don't care. This party is a drag.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Devotes most of its energy to its costumes and makeup, which are fabulous. But that and a tabloid-worthy star just aren't enough to revisit this sordid tale as a kind of twisted comedy.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

The film's only real bright spot is Seth Green, who, as Culkin's sidekick, brings Party Monster a droll wit it otherwise lacks. It's such a dreary mess that when Culkin insists that life in prison isn't too different from being a club kid, it's all too easy to believe him.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

The psychologizing in Party Monster never goes deeper than what you might get out of Dr. Phil on a bad day.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

Macaulay Culkin still can't act, and it's no longer cute. His performance in Party Monster is so embarrassing one doesn't know where to look.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Feels fake, forced and indigestible.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

"Prison isn't all that different from a nightclub,'' comments Alig toward the end. Funny; this movie isn't all that different from prison.

Wall Street Journal Joanne Kaufman

The distance between tawdry and tedious can be amazingly short. It is traveled with Concorde speed in the arch Party Monster.

LA Weekly Ernest Hardy

There's really only one reason to see Party Monster, and that's Seth Green's scene-stealing performance as former (and somewhat reluctant) New York club kid James St. James, the boy who would be queen.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

The wanton fabulistas of Party Monster are as boring and insignificant as the very "normals and drearies" they so contemptuously deride.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

A colorful mess, all style and substances and little else.

Salon.com Charles Taylor

Unwatchable.