Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)It looks like the lovable little boy from "Home Alone" has grown up. Macaulay Culkin is now in his early 20s and stars in this outrageous and rather sick story of Michael Alig, a real-life club kid of the early 1990s, who is now serving a long prison term for murder. This 2003 film is not only his story, it is also the story of a time and a place and a world that it no more. It's about parties and fantasy outfits and the shock value of indeterminate gender.. But mostly, it's about a drug culture that catered to these party people, and how it destroyed Alig's life. Culkin does an outstanding acting job in the role, bringing a touch of humanity to the character as well as a great deal of ego and evil.
Based on a book entitled "Disco Bloodbath" by James St. James, who actually lived through these years, the author is a major character in the story. Seth Green is cast in this role and plays it to the hilt, a party person who likes to play but stops short of the excesses that push Alig over the edge. The rest of the cast is full of some of real party people, with Marilyn Manson playing a drag queen.
One of the scary things about this film is how real it feels. The small subculture of partygoers search for thrills, their makeup and clothing screaming for attention. Their brains are addled with drugs and their purpose in life is only to draw attention to themselves. It's fame without substance or meaning and its all mindless. But, with the exception of the Culkin character, their carryings on doesn't really harm anyone but themselves.
I didn't expect to like this film. I almost shut it off after the first 15 minutes. However, it was so intense that I just kept watching. And I was eventually swept into the story and the people and the world that it depicted, a colorful bubble world which inevitably burst and is no more. This film recalls that bubble, including all the horror as well as the fun. Recommended.
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