Ahead of its upcoming premiere at Cannes Film Festival, director John Cameron Mitchell, star Elle Fanning, and Neil Gaiman (who authored the short story the film is based on) dropped teasers on their Instagrams for the absolutely fucking crazy and dynamite How to Talk to Girls at Parties. You’re going to want to watch all of these a dozen times on loop, just to see how many crazy details you can pick up on (and so you can see Nicole Kidman being a punk queen looking like David Bowie in Labrynth up in a motherfucker).
This is a notable turn away from realism for Mitchell, who hasn’t made a film since 2010’s Rabbit Hole, and back towards the heightened beauty of his previous work like Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Shortbus. Fanning’s continuing her run of dominance in the cult/indie circuit, having premiered Nicolas Winding Refn’s Neon Demon at Cannes last year as well. Between this and American Gods, Gaiman’s going through one hell of a screen renaissance now that people have stopped threatening to make Sandman into a two hour movie.
And of course, it’s an A24 release.
Here’s a synopsis from those good folks:
John Cameron Mitchell, director of the acclaimed films Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Shortbus takes us to an exotic and unusual world: Suburban London in the late ’70s. Under the spell of the Sex Pistols, every teenager in the country wants to be a punk, including our hopeless hero Enn (Alex Sharp). Crashing local punk queen Boadicea’s party, Enn discovers every boy’s dream – gorgeous foreign exchange students. When he meets the enigmatic Zan (Elle Fanning), it’s love at first sight. But these teens are, in fact, aliens from outer space, sent to Earth to prepare for a mysterious rite of passage. When their dark secret is revealed, the love-struck Enn must turn to Boadicea (Nicole Kidman) and her followers for help in order to save the girl he loves from certain death. When the punks take on the aliens, neither Enn’s nor Zan’s universe will ever be the same again.
It’s expected that How to Talk to Girls at Parties will hit theaters at some point this year, and we hope it gets a slated date soon. Expect more footage to come out around the time of the film’s premiere — lord knows this would be a great way to start the news cycle next week.
Holy punking fuck! Take a leak at your first peek of HOW TO TALK TO GIRLS AT PARTIES
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