Is It Time To Remake The Party?

By Daniel Mumby /

2. It Could Become Just Another Party Movie Ever since American Pie sunk its claws (and other body parts) in the conventions of Animal House, we€™ve been treated to a slew of movies which revolve around or feature in some way a drunken frat-style party. Whether it€™s gross-out fodder like Superbad or found footage works like Chronicle and Project X, it seems you can€™t have a party in an American film nowadays unless it features obnoxious levels of drinking, sex, nudity and/ or drug-taking (because hey, aren€™t all parties like that?!). The point here is that any remake would run the risk of falling into this trap if it doesn€™t get the comedy right. The Party worked originally because the party itself was reasonably low-key; it wasn€™t a rave in which you can barely see, let alone hear, what the characters are saying. If a remake wants to depict a 21st-century party, it must do it in a way that allows the confusion to unfold naturally, rather than shoving unlikeable people in our faces and expecting us to take to them. Click Next for the final analysis...

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