Glam It Up, Michael!

Party Monster tells the true story of the rise and fall of New York nightclub legend Michael Alig. Moving to New York at a young age, Alig (played by Macaulay Culkin), with the help of fellow club kid James St. James (played by Seth Green), skyrockets to mythical status in the New York nightclub scene, thanks in part to his extravagant parties, eccentric behavior and excessive drug use. As Alig's drug addiction grew, his life came crashing down, culminating in the murder of his friend and drug dealer, Angel Melendez.

Party Monster had its premier at the Sundance Film Festival on January 15, 2003 and soon had a limited release across art-house cinemas across the US. The film was received poorly by critics nationwide. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone says "This film feels fake, forced and indigestible," Denis Harvey from Variety calls it an "ultimately so-what look at some rather obnoxious personalities," and Eric Harrison of the Houston Chronicle simply calls the film "a mess." It seemed that general audiences seemed to agree, with the final Stateside grosses of the film ending up at $760,000, far short of its reported $5 million budget. However, the film has seemed to gather a cult following, gaining popularity through video/DVD rentals and purchases, cable TV airings and word of mouth.

In her book A Killer Life, Christine Vachon talks about the hardships she faced during the production and release of the film. In the book, she talks about how the film took five years in order to get the financing straighten out. The financing was split between two companies: Fortissimo, a European sales company who put up $1 Million to have the rights to release the film worldwide and ContentFilm, a New York-based financing company who put up $800,000 to release the film in the US. Once the film premiered at Sundance, the film had two offers for distribution: a modest offer from Lionsgate and a high offer from DEJ Productions (Blockbuster Video's acquisitions company), who would purchase the film and release it straight-to-video. In order to protect their investment, ContentFilm went with the DEJ offer. While ContentFilm is happy, everyone else involved feels back-stabbed and generally bummed out. Culkin and Green feel stung and won't really promote a straight-to-video release. The foreign investors are furious because they invested in a film that was to have a THEATRICAL release, which would boost a foreign theatrical release. And the directors, Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbado, were "shell-shocked and depressed." However, in the end, a small company called Strand Releasing gave the film a small theatrical run and some of the stars promoted the film.

While not exactly one of the more popular films Vachon has produced, Party Monster remains an interesting film with a colorful background, both in subject matter and in production. If you haven't had a chance to see the flick, give Michael Alig a chance to glam it up. Work it, sister!