Party Monster
Metascore
36 out of 100

Generally unfavorable reviews - based on 29 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 29
  2. Mixed: 12 out of 29
  3. Negative: 12 out of 29
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  1. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Mark Caro
    38
    In the end you don't believe what you're watching, and you don't care. This party is a drag.
  2. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Lou Lumenick
    38
    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.
  3. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Nathan Rabin
    30
    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.
  4. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Michael O'Sullivan
    30
    The psychologizing in Party Monster never goes deeper than what you might get out of Dr. Phil on a bad day.
  5. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    25
    Feels fake, forced and indigestible.
  6. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jami Bernard
    25
    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.
  7. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    25
    "Prison isn't all that different from a nightclub,'' comments Alig toward the end. Funny; this movie isn't all that different from prison.
  8. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marc Savlov
    20
    A colorful mess, all style and substances and little else.
  9. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Ernest Hardy
    20
    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.
  10. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Joanne Kaufman
    20
    The distance between tawdry and tedious can be amazingly short. It is traveled with Concorde speed in the arch Party Monster.
  11. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Ann Hornaday
    20
    The wanton fabulistas of Party Monster are as boring and insignificant as the very "normals and drearies" they so contemptuously deride.
  12. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Charles Taylor
    10
    Unwatchable.

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
7.3 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 30 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14 out of 19
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 19
  3. Negative: 5 out of 19
  1. Gargus
    0
    This was just a horrible movie in every way you can imagine. The set pieces, the acting, the script, just everything about it. I watched it with my girlfriend and we tend to finish a movie we start even if its bad and every so often we would look at the clock to see how much longer there was and it would seem like it should be half over but it had only been 15 minutes.

    The acting was god awful. I'm sure a lot of people would say it's supposed to be bad to emulate the vacuous and empty club kid lifestyle of the characters and supposed to be cheesy. But no, it was just bad. I've been around enough people who do hardcore drugs to know what they are like and drugs were a big part of the story but they played it so horribly bad it was embarrassing. The rest was just awful middle school drama club quality of acting where everything is so over the top it's painful to watch. The kind of acting where you can't tell if they aren't taking serious and goofing around by being so over the top, or if they truly honestly think they are these great actors really digging deep into their roles and impressed with what awesome actors they are when in reality public access shows have better actors.

    I understand low budgets and I appreciate the fact but this went beyond low budget, they simply didn't care. You can't take a unfinished wet basement in some rundown apartment building, turn off the lights, put in a mirror ball, put some streamers up and have 5 people jumping around in costumes that looked like they were made by 12 year olds and expect me to suspend my disbelief enough to imagine that this is supposed to be the hottest and hippest club in New York. Or that the biggest club planner in the city has like 10 people in the back of a tractor trailer in some abandoned parking lot.

    This movie feels like it was specifically designed to be some cult hit. As if the people behind it were checking off a list of what they think a cult hit movie is and did everything in their power to hit that target. They don't realize you cant make a cult film on purpose. But this felt like it was just trying to force itself and fake being a cult movie. Even the casting felt like it with a bunch of notable indie actors like Chloë Sevigny, Natasha Lyonne, right down to Marilyn manson. And then you have to throw in some has been actors like John Stamos so people can say "Om my god its john stamos!" Casting people that convey a character and be believable is important, but when you do it just for the sake of having a certain person to attract a certain audience is just laughable and never ends well.

    Worse yet I felt like I didn't discover anything, gain any insight or have any real moral so to speak. It was just a bunch of people taking drugs, staging mock rave parties, killing someone and then it ends. And to add insult to injury the pacing was just pure crap. Die hard was a better constructed film than this and that is just about a cop who gets trapped in a building and shoots people.

    This movie is purely bad film making, bad acting, bad scripting, bad sound, bad design and we are all dumber for having watched it. I like a bad movie that has some sense of substance or a purpose, but this movie has neither. It is a virtual turd pinched off in some cheap attempt at gaining notoriety with the indie kids.    … Full Review »
  2. GooberParents
    10
    Absolutely a PERFECT rendition of Disco Bloodbath by James St. James. Anyone who has the pleasure of reading his novel would agree...and he (James St. James) even made an appearance with some of the other club kids!! (need to look hard though)… Full Review »
  3. JenyL.
    10
    I just loved this movie! It had the perfect cast.. the only word I can think of to say is that it was FABULOUS!!!
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