Daisy von Scherler Mayer’s film Party Girl (1995) is a euphoric love letter to the underground club culture and queer scene in New York circa the early nineties. The film celebrates individual expression, high fashion, and a general kineticism all in equal measure. Party Girl is a high energy film brimming with compassion.
The film follows Mary (Parker Posey at her most radiant), the titular party girl, who after being arrested takes a job with her godmother Judy (Sasha von Scherler) at a branch of the New York Public Library. Gradually Mary learns there is more to life than partying. Ultimately, Mary decides that she too wishes to be a librarian.
Daisy von Scherler Mayer directs her film in broad, campy strokes. Even when the subject matter is serious the tone of Party Girl remains playful. At every turn there is the sense that anything could happen to these characters. This is particularly true of the romance between Mary and Mustafa (Omar Townsend) as the film teases a “will they, won’t they” narrative of false starts.
Under all the joy and energy are darker themes. Mary’s mother, who is deceased and never appears in the films, is a presence felt throughout the film. It is suggested that Mary’s party going lifestyle is something of a tailspin after the death of her mother. Judy references her mother consistently and Mary feels she needs to prove she’s her own woman. So time and time again Mary remakes herself to be further and further from her mother’s character.
Ultimately Judy becomes a surrogate mother figure for Mary. It is Judy’s approval that comes to mean more to Mary than fashion, dancing, and cover charges. It’s this journey for approval that remakes Mary into a responsible adult, essentially dispensing with the iteration of her character that is seen at the start of the film being arrested at a party. Party Girl celebrates a cultural moment, but subtextually it is a film about a woman creating her adult identity.
