Party Girl (1995 film)

Mary is a free spirit filling her days dancing in clubs and throwing house parties. After being arrested for organizing an underground rave, she calls upon her godmother Judy Lindendorf to bail her out. In order for Mary to repay the loan, Judy hires her as a clerk at the library she manages. Mary reluctantly begins her new job while striking up a romance with Lebanese street vendor and aspiring teacher, Mustafa. Despite initial misgivings about work, Mary is inspired to learn how to use the Dewey Decimal System after smoking a joint. Gradually, she becomes very good at her job, but is later fired after having sex with Mustafa in the library. With no money to pay the accumulating rent, she and her roommate, club DJ Leo, face eviction from their apartment. In desperation, Mary sells her vintage couture in order to pay the bills.

During one of her parties, Mary takes drugs to forget a fight with Mustafa. The next day, she decides to get her life in order and become a librarian, and her fellow workers discuss a path of graduate study. She invites Judy over for a serious talk, but then Mary is dismayed to discover a raucous surprise birthday party complete with a male stripper. Mary implores with a skeptical Judy that she has finally found her calling in life, then Leo and Mustafa each share how Mary used her library science skills to help them improve their careers. Impressed, Judy gives Mary her job back, then joins the party.

• Parker Posey as Mary
• Anthony DeSando as Derrick
• Guillermo Díaz as Leo
• Donna Mitchell as Rene
• Liev Schreiber as Nigel
• Omar Townsend as Mustafa
• Sasha von Scherler as Judy Lindendorf
• Becky Mode as Ann
• Simon Verhoeven as Kurt

The film had a budget of $150,000[3] and was shot in 19 days.[4] Much of the cast and crew were already immersed in the queer downtown club scene long before the film was made. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Posey recalls that in the early 1990s she "would go out rollerblading at The Roxy on Sundays and to [the party] Love Machine, where I first saw RuPaul", and that, much like in Party Girl's club scenes, Posey "would dance with the queens, and they would just annihilate me on the dance floor with their moves."[3]

According to director Daisy von Scherler Meyer, "the fashion was really invented for the film. [Michael Clancy] created an aesthetic for the character and for the movie and combined that with Parker Posey's own fashion obsession."[3] Posey says that they relied on favors to assemble the outfits: "The wardrobe designer, Michael Clancy, and his assistant Vicky Farrell ... pulled a lot of things from their friends", such as designer Todd Oldham.[5]

Party Girl had an Internet premiere ahead of its wide release, transmitted from the office of Glenn Fleishman and his Point of Presence Company on June 3, 1995.[2] While the early video transmission was limited to black and white, it marked the first time a feature film with an American movie theater release was broadcast generally online.[6] Appearing live in the PoPCo offices, Posey welcomed Internet viewers and then introduced the film.

Fleishman recalled the event:

I helped launch the first official full-length [Internet] movie premiere in 1995 in my offices in Seattle. The film was broadcast to several hundred people worldwide over a CU-SeeMe reflector at Point of Presence Company's offices in downtown and then [in] a few minutes, it was projected at The Egyptian in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood. Parker Posey was in our offices to hit the start button on the broadcast. I was one cog in a larger set of wheels that involved the Seattle International Film Festival, Film.com (now part of RealNetworks), First Look Releasing, and the film's producers, as well as another online development company and a CUSeeMe engineering consultant, Joseph Kahan who also worked at NASA down in Texas. The launch was shown on NBC Nightly News in a five-minute segment at the bottom of the Sunday broadcast that week.[7]

With much of the action driven by clubs, party scenes, and a DJ character, most of the film's music is diegetic, with characters often engaging with music appropriate to the mid-1990s club scene.

The film opened June 9, 1995, and grossed $472,370 during its initial theatrical release,[8] and has since become a cult classic. Posey says she often gets approached by librarians who are fans of the film: "Librarians and people who work in bookstores are like 'Oh my God, thank you so much. Party Girl made me want to become a librarian.'"[3] Von Scherler Meyer believes Party Girl resonates with audiences because of the film's authentic depiction of underrepresented communities: "When people say 'Oh, the world [in Party Girl] is so diverse,' it's like 'No. That's the world. You don't represent the world in your stuff. Why is your world so segregated?' I think the world is messed up, and Party Girl is normal."[3] On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 80% based on 35 reviews, with an average rating of 6.3/10.[9]

The film often is noted for its influence on fashion, particularly in the case of Mary's wardrobe.[10][11]

A television series based on the film was produced in 1996, starring Christine Taylor as Mary and Swoosie Kurtz as Judy. Although six episodes were filmed, only four were aired and the show was quickly cancelled.[12]

The 2023 Blu-ray release includes audio commentary by radio personality Jake Fogelnest.

• Party Girl at IMDb
• Party Girl at AllMovie
• Party Girl at the TCM Movie Database
• Party Girl at the American Film Institute Catalog
• Party Girl at Rotten Tomatoes
• How 1995’s Party Girl Became the First Movie to Premiere Online