How to Talk to Girls at Parties
A24 | Release Date: May 25, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
50
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 24 Critic Reviews
Positive:
10
Mixed:
12
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
92
Paste MagazineOktay Ege Kozak Jun 5, 2018
How to Talk to Girls at Parties is a deliciously bizarre and refreshingly unique experience that not only manages to successfully meld two completely opposite tones—punk and whimsy—but to wrap them up into an exhilarating narrative that infuses a familiar sci-fi/comedy/romance structure with a host of surprises that even the most hardened genre scholar will appreciate. Read full review
83
The PlaylistNikola GrozdanovicMay 27, 2017
This outer space oddity is destined for the cult-classic section of some future camp horror and sci-fi B-movie aisle. Read full review
72
The AtlanticChristopher OrrJun 16, 2018
A punk-rock-meets-aliens story of young romance, it finds itself uncomfortably on the spectrum somewhere between Earth Girls Are Easy and Liquid Sky: neither good enough to be a conventional success nor weird enough to be a cult hit. Read full review
70
Screen DailyLee MarshallMay 27, 2017
How To Talk To Girls at Parties shouldn’t work, as it feels at times like a film made by a talented student collective who overheard a ‘punk vs aliens’ elevator pitch. But work it does: it’s all a bit mad, but ultimately rather moving. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattMay 24, 2018
What saves it is the casting (Fanning especially is fantastic, both winsome and wonderfully strange) and Mitchell’s obvious fondness for his milieu. His giddy, knowingly camp direction has a sort of glitter-stick DIY spirit that keeps the movie aloft long after the story itself has run out of road. Read full review
67
IndieWireEric KohnMay 27, 2017
Mitchell transforms Neil Gaiman’s sci-fi short story into a vibrant, edgy and at times outright goofy statement on tough antiestablishment rebels and freewheeling hippy vibes, suggesting that they’re not really all that that different. Read full review
63
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanJun 1, 2018
Setting the film in the punk heyday underscores the film’s themes of personal freedom and defying authority. And there are heartwarming touches, despite a plot that is muddied by sci-fi mumbo-jumbo about cannibalism. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy BurrMay 30, 2018
Throw out any expectations you might have of coherent narrative structure or directorial control, and you might have a pretty good time. Read full review
63
Rolling StoneDavid FearMay 24, 2018
How to Talk to Girls at Parties is all feedback. It talks loud and says next to nothing. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoMay 18, 2018
Ultimately, How to Talk to Girls at Parties is like a hyperactive kid at a punk rock show—full of great energy and ambition, but not too sure what to do with it. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovMay 31, 2018
Amazingly, it all works up to a point, although at approaching two hours in length, it could’ve easily shaved its bifurcated mohawk down by a good 15 minutes. Read full review
50
The New YorkerAnthony LaneMay 28, 2018
The most surprising aspect of the film is its suburban mildness, plus the hapless charm of its hero, Enn (Alex Sharp). Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangMay 24, 2018
How to Talk to Girls at Parties is an aimless, sweet-souled jumble. Its ebullience is palpable, if rarely infectious. Read full review
50
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisMay 24, 2018
How to Talk to Girls at Parties is a kitschy, spaced-out oddity. The energy peaks and droops, pogoes and flatlines, with Sandy Powell’s kooky costumes doing much of the visual heavy lifting. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubVikram MurthiMay 22, 2018
It’s everything and nothing at once. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyMay 27, 2017
Ultimately, this psychedelic culture-clash comedy-romance takes what was at heart a relatively simple story by Gaiman, which channeled bold sci-fi imagination into relatable adolescent experience, and overcomplicates it beyond repair. Read full review
42
The Film StageJordan RuimyJun 1, 2017
The lack of narrative propulsion or powerful subtext of any kind results in little dramatic substance beyond its cult-like ambitions. Read full review
40
EmpireChris Hewitt (1)May 14, 2018
An energetic but erratic film that straddles about a dozen genres at once, none of them that successfully. One for those who like oodles of odd. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)Emily YoshidaMay 27, 2017
The script is frantically trying to build a whole world when a modest house would do. Read full review
40
CineVueJohn BleasdaleMay 27, 2017
Mitchell's understanding of punk seems to be the brandishing of two or three cliches, shouting a lot and name-checking bands. Read full review
40
The GuardianXan BrooksMay 27, 2017
What an extravagantly muddled, borderline incontinent film this is. You might call it genre-hopping, except that this would imply some degree of intent and control. Read full review
40
The TelegraphTim RobeyMay 27, 2017
It tends to be flat, misjudged, and a bit of a nightmare, but it’s too frivolously knocked-off to give lasting annoyance. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineJosh WiseMay 21, 2018
The film's tagline goes “Talk to the girl. Save the world,” but at no point does Earth's fate hang in the balance, and talking to Elle Fanning's Zan is no great challenge for anyone. Read full review
30
VarietyOwen GleibermanMay 27, 2017
The film enunciates its raw themes — punk means individuality! the aliens are all about conformity! — but never begins to figure out how to embody those themes in a narrative that could lure in the audience. Read full review
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