Neil Gaiman always seems to have like five movie adaptations underway at once. How to Talk to Girls at Parties is the latest one. Adapted from one of Gaiman’s short stories, it’s about two teenage boys who go to a party to meet girls, but discover the girls in question are actually aliens. The 1970s punk setting is a perfect fit for director John Cameron Mitchell, who is best known for creating Hedwig and the Angry Inch.
Elle Fanning stars as one of the alien girls, with Nicole Kidman as their leader—an imposing woman who looks like a cross between David Bowie and Cruella DeVille. The latest trailer arrived today, proclaiming (at last) that the film is “coming soon.” According to indie distributor A24 (the people who brought us Lady Bird, The Florida Project and The Disaster Artist last year), that means sometime this summer.
This movie has a lot going for it. Gaiman is a brand unto himself, and John Cameron Mitchell fans have waited a long time for him to release another movie. Then there’s the punk-era aesthetic, which feels refreshing for the sci-fi genre.
Our only hint of caution comes from the film’s reception last year, which wasn’t so hot. When How to Talk to Girls at Parties screened at film festivals in 2017, it mostly earned negative reviews. That may explain why it took so long for A24 to start promoting it in the U.S., and why we don’t have a specific release date yet. Will it turn out to be an under-appreciated cult hit, or is it really the stinker those reviews suggest?