Parker Posey’s ’90s cult classic ‘Party Girl’ gets 4K restoration, theatrical re-release
Party Girl, director Daisy von Scherler Mayer's 1995 cult classic comedy featuring a starmaking lead performance from Parker Posey as a free spirit downtown club kid who gets a job as a librarian and finds meaning in the Dewey Decimal system, has long been underserved in home video. The DVD was released in a cropped 4:3 aspect ratio for old-school TVs and went out of print quickly. But there's a brand new 4K restoration of the film that has grimy mid-'90s New York looking better than ever.
“We made this movie for ‘the kids’ — as we called them — young people from small towns, who had big dreams, and who weren’t, for whatever reason, conforming to the status quo,” Parker Posey told with IndieWire. “Our intention was to nurture them — with style and color, wit and heart, music and dance. I’m happy the film’s out with a re-release, to inspire again — the unconventional path many of us live today.”
You can watch the trailer for the 4K restoration below.
The new restoration is getting a theatrical re-release as well, playing in NYC and L.A. starting Friday, April 28. In NYC it'll be playing at IFC Center and there are sold-out sneak preview screenings on Thursday with Q&As with Parker Posey after. It will also be at Nitehawk Williamsburg on Saturday, May 6 and Sunday, May 7 for brunch screenings.
You can also watch it on the Criterion Channel right now.
If you've never seen it, Party Girl also stars Liev Schreiber, Anthony DeSando, Guillermo Díaz, and Donna Mitchell, but flies almost entirely on Posey's abundant charisma as well as a very tuned-in sense of place. Set around the '90s vibrant club scene, the film boasts a great house music soundtrack including songs from Deee-Lite, Felix Da Housecat, Basscut, Carl Craig, Mr. Fingers, Tom Tom Club, Brooklyn Funk Essentials, The Wolfgang Press and more. You can listen to the soundtrack below, too.
Party Girl was also the first film to premiere online (bet that looked great in 1995), and spawned a very shortlived sitcom starring Christine Taylor.