Party Monster (1998)

Gripping and silly in equal measure, this documentary is arguably more entertaining than the filmmakers' later feature of the same name. Without Macaulay Culkin to stand in for him, club kid-turned-murder Michael Alig faces the camera both before and after his conviction for the killing of drug dealer Angel Melendez. The result is like a year's worth of Jerry Springer episodes crammed into a single can't-miss hour. From home movies of Alig during his ketamine-snorting heyday to interview footage of his trashy, baffled mother, Party Monster amply chronicles the druggy, fame-for-fame's-sake ethos that powered New York club life during the rave years. Along the way, it gives camera time to all sorts of marginal cases without ever asserting any prefab moral viewpoint. Sadly enough, the burned-out remnants of the club-kid scene are still willing to talk about Alig as long as it gives them a spot in the limelight (if not the Limelight). Filmmakers Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato may pad their already short documentary with cheesy reenactments, but it's hard to dismiss the traffic-accident magnetism of interview subjects like the former Alig hanger-on who tries to promote a 12-inch dance single inspired by the murder. The feature-film version may be hipper and wittier, but this documentary shows the whole sick scene like it really went down. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide