It’s a punked-out, Croydon-based, sci-fi, teen romance set during the lead-up to Queen Elizabeth II’s 1977 Silver Jubilee celebration, the one the Sex Pistols crashed by sailing up the Thames playing ‘God Save the Queen’. From John Cameron Mitchell (Shortbus, Hedwig and the Angry Inch) and based on an award-winning short story by Neil Gaiman comes How to Talk to Girls at Parties.
Scrawny, leather-clad punk teen Enn (Alex Sharp) is just departing a messy night out at Queen Boadicea's gonzo rave (played by a deliciously rage-filled Nicole Kidman), when he stumbles across a strange house party filled with neon latex-clad characters and meets the enigmatic Zan (Elle Fanning). Suddenly, grimy punk realism runs straight into an outlandish extraterrestrial love story as their standard romance takes a screeching turn, literally into another dimension.
This delirious sci-fi/punk-rock/queer musical expands from source material that visionary indie director Mitchell makes wholly his own with every kinky costuming choice – every psychedelic detour – culminating in a genre-bending coming-of-age tale with a comic-book sensibility; a beautiful ode to difference and the fundamentally rebellious act of not wanting – or caring – to fit in.
