Parker Posey

Clockwatchers

Party Girl

What’s the perfect follow up to the spacey, silly vibes of last week’s stoner cinema? A double feature of Parker Posey films of course! Parker Posey is the irreverent, effervescent icon, actress, and star, who ruled the 90s and early 2000s but still slays every single role she takes on to this day. From Dazed and Confused, to Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, to Scream 3, Josie and the Pussycats—not only are these films some of my all time favorites, but they were extremely formative in my childhood. I remember being so hypnotized by her presence in Dazed and Confused as the terrifying senior who leads the freshman initiation, that I was genuinely afraid to go to high school for that reason alone. When she played yet another villain in Josie and the Pussycats, I remember thinking that she was so funny and so chic that I didn’t even blame her for leading the fight to brainwash youth into mindless soldiers for consumerism. In Waiting for Guffman, among a cast of iconically, famously funny people, she not only keeps up, she steals the show. Parker Posey, regardless of the role she’s in, is always stylish and memorable and maintains a sharp, hilarious attitude that comes off as delightfully unpredictable. She is reliably funny, no matter what is required of her. And she finds a way to stunt and serve looks no matter what she’s wearing. There’s something about Parker Posey’s presence that comforts me, because she’s so familiar and funny and just can’t help standing out among the crowd. Her roles in tonight’s films were no different, but I must say, for a person who’s screen presence promises a natural charm and hilarity, these Parker Posey films were surprisingly dark. Both of tonight’s films have been recommended to me several times, both of them were directed by women, both had interesting costume designing, and both were intensely, immensely existential. Jill Sprecher’s 1997 film Clockwatchers follows a temp named Iris (Toni Collette) who makes friends with three women at her latest job, where she learns to master the art of getting through the workday, until a new employee enters the picture and shakes up the office ecosystem. This entire cast is incredible—Lisa Kudrow, Alanna Ubach, Bob Balaban, Debra Jo Rupp, Jamie Kennedy, Paul Dooley—but Parker Posey is undeniably the standout here. As someone who’s worked in an office she hopes that she never has to return to, this film was a bit triggering, but nonetheless enthralling. Clockwatchers expertly and eerily captures the tedium of a day spent working in an office building. Feeling like a corporate drone, feeling like a body in a seat, clocking in and out every day to sit and perform uninteresting, soul-sucking, energy-draining tasks is a universal feeling that Clockwatchers presented with an ease that made me uneasy. In many ways, Clockwatchers and its dry, cynical humor, felt like a spiritual precursor to Office Space. But this film was far more bleak, and a little less cathartic. There’s an aura of depressing acceptance throughout this film that is so palpable, when the tone changes and the stakes are slightly raised, it’s almost jarring. There is a funny, dare I say relatable sense of humor here, but there was also a great deal of sadness. Not necessarily the kind of sadness that is accumulated from sad storylines, but a kind of mundane, existential sadness that crept in and suddenly became inescapable. It was almost dystopian, similarly to previously-watched office dystopias The Double and Brazil, but it had a disarming level of style, color, and heart to it that I was not expecting. Clockwatchers spends a lot of time waxing poetic about the meaninglessness of life and the crushing anxiety of choosing a career, which, for this existentialist viewer, felt painfully real. Overall, I did like Clockwatchers and cannot deny its contributions to the genre of office-based comedies, I just wish this comedy had a little more comedy, and a little less nihilism. Parker Posey and Lisa Kudrow really were the brightest parts of this movie, and provided a great deal of the laughs on my end, but Parker Posey once again stole the show as she waltzed through the cubicles and delivered some of the best dialogue. In all of the brilliant roles she’s played, I’d never seen her play the main character, but Daisy von Scherler Mayer’s 1995 film Party Girl proved that not only can Parker Posey lead a film, she can save it from being a total flop. Party Girl opens with a solidly energetic beat, the rumbling of rousing conversations, an air of excitement, and Lady Bunny? No matter how brief or casual Lady Bunny’s cameo was, for them to open on such an iconic drag queen had me hooked immediately. The camera pans up above her bright, blonde wig as the beat continues, revealing a large, rowdy, smokey party full of drinking, drugs, and our titular party girl Mary, who’s conducting several business deals until the cops bust her. She uses her one phone call to call her only family: her godmother Judy (Sasha von Scherler [the mother of the director]) who introduces Mary to the wonderful world of books. Judy is a proud librarian, and doesn’t think Mary has what it takes to live the librarian life, to which Mary says “You don't think I'm smart enough to work in your fucking library?” then spends 90 minutes proving her right, then wrong. It is an incredibly silly premise, with a very realistic story bubbling beneath the surface. Not knowing where you’re going in the world and using whatever form of escapism you can to get by? That’s pretty real. And yet this film insisted upon being unreal at every turn. The bizarro, psychedelic nature of this film worked best when it came to its costuming, musical direction, and overall aesthetic, but when it came time for our protagonist to figure her life out, it came together in a somewhat easy but jumbled rush. Because it was 1995, there were a handful of culturally inappropriate moments and a few instances of just straight up homophobia, but I could tell that this film meant well. There’s a surprising amount of LGBTQ+ representation in this film, between Mary’s gay friends, all of their fellow club kids, and an abundance of house music. If you’re into the oontz oontz genre of music you should definitely check out the soundtrack to Party Girl and just sweat to it. The exciting soundtrack, wardrobe, and cast kept me interested in this story, between a very young Guillermo Diaz, Liev Schreiber, and the very dreamy Omar Townsend (who never seemed to act ever again?), I couldn’t look away from this movie. It was undoubtedly weird, but surprisingly charming. Much like its messy, quirky, well-intentioned main character, Party Girl managed to win me over in the end. Even though there are some weird vibes throughout this movie, Parker Posey anchored this film into a wonderfully whimsical, reliably goofy territory whenever she uttered lines like “What do you want me to do? I don't have a job. I'm a loser. Shoot me.” or, in the vein of last week’s films, “I would like a nice, powerful, mind-altering substance. Preferably one that will make my unborn children grow gills.” If you like to laugh, if you like to be somewhat confused, if you wanna expose yourself to some 90s-era delirium, why not give Clockwatchers and Party Girl a try? At the very least, to bask in the brunette bewitchment of Parker Posey.