How to Talk to Girls at Parties is set in the 1970s and has punk as the backdrop and an excellent cast (Nicole Kidman, Ruth Wilson, Elle Fanning). It also features what could be a decent premise (boy who treats girls as if from another planet meets actual girl from another planet). But everything it has going for it is undone by what it doesn’t have going for it, which is substantial. This could, in fact, have been titled How to Stay Awake Once You’ve Lost All Patience because, I now know, staying awake once you’ve lost all patience makes talking to girls at parties look like a walk in the park, frankly.
The film is extrapolated from a very short story (only 18 pages) by the science-fiction writer Neil Gaiman and is directed by John Cameron Mitchell (Rabbit Hole; several episodes of Girls) who wrote the screenplay with Philippa Goslett (Mary Magdalene; oh dear).
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