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United Kingdom, United States · 2017
Rated R · 1h 43m
Director John Cameron Mitchell
Starring Elle Fanning, Alex Sharp, Nicole Kidman, Matt Lucas
Genre Comedy, Music, Romance, Science Fiction
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In 1977 London, when three punk teenagers go to a party to meet girls, they run into alien teenage girls who are visiting Earth as a rite of passage. They befriend the aliens and teach them about Earth, London, and punk rock.
The Hollywood Reporter by David Rooney
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.
New York Magazine (Vulture) by Emily Yoshida
The script is frantically trying to build a whole world when a modest house would do.
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.
Mitchell's understanding of punk seems to be the brandishing of two or three cliches, shouting a lot and name-checking bands.
The Film Stage by Jordan Ruimy
The lack of narrative propulsion or powerful subtext of any kind results in little dramatic substance beyond its cult-like ambitions.
Screen International by Lee Marshall
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.
The Playlist by Nikola Grozdanovic
This outer space oddity is destined for the cult-classic section of some future camp horror and sci-fi B-movie aisle.
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.
It tends to be flat, misjudged, and a bit of a nightmare, but it’s too frivolously knocked-off to give lasting annoyance.
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.
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