Review: ‘Garden Party’

Los Angeles has more than earned a reputation as a destroyer of worlds, swallowing up naive little sweethearts with their dreams packed into their suitcases only to vomit up their bones months, weeks or even days later into the hot desert air to bleach in the sun. There’s no point in sugar coating the harsh reality of Tinsel Townâ„ ¢; the city’s reputation as a make-it or break-it arena is so well established that any film attempting to depict what is essentially one of the oldest stories in the book should take care to be exceedingly original, lest it get lost in the shuffle of the 10,000 other similar tales of urban hell. Garden Party follows a classic group of ambitious youngsters and their attempts at becoming musicians / dancers / employed members of society and does its best to illustrate the price of dreaming and the moral compromises that typically accompany the desperate legion of the LA populace. However, for all its suggestions of hard worn victories and moral decay, the characters of this film tend to come out strangely intact from their mistakes and the entire setup is missing the healthy dose of grit, sleaze and sweat that anyone spending time in the actual city is familiar with. Instead we’re offered Bret Easton Ellis-lite, fear and loathing replaced with slight fatigue and a general unwillingness to get a day job.

The characters here are realistic enough; Sammy wants to find a career in music, April is running from an unpleasant situation back home, Nathan has left the corn-fed fields of Nebraska so he can dance for a living. They arrive, many of them with no particular plans to speak of, and struggle to establish the old standbys of shelter, opportunity, and peers to commiserate with, the last one ranking fairly high on the list. We’re offered a movie world where characters, despite being afflicted by the classic isolation of a metropolis, are still more than willing to be totally candid with anyone of interest who crosses their path, be it potential room-mates, bosses or even strangers at bars. However, for new arrivals supposedly entrenched in LA career warfare, most of them have little to worry about. April stays rent-free in a giant Silverlake apartment for the immediate future, while Nathan’s job grants him his own house, car, and a gargantuan supply of marijuana, courtesy of his boss Sally who just wants him on call 24/7. Everyone gets a lucky break from time to time, but I’m not sure how relatable some of these situations will be to anyone actively spending their time in a roached-infested studio somewhere in the Valley. Garden Party goes on to create an intricate web of chance encounters and developing relations, eventually linking all of its main characters as they use each other in various ways to find a way to the top. However, no one ever seems to be terribly distressed most of the time; Sammy is more than content to hang out smoking weed waiting for the timely arrival of an interested music producer (a comedic highlight of the film), Sally confronts her shady past with a smile and an affable kidnapping, and so on. No one is pushed to their comfort limits here, they simply jump on their own as soon as an even remotely uncomfortable situation arrives. Search the classifieds for a day job, apply for a credit card, or find a cheaper city to escape to? Nah, April’s posing nude her first week in town.

In the end, it’s hard to gauge the target audience for Garden Party as a whole . Its promised depiction of youth selling out their souls seems promising enough, but it gets a little lost in the delivery. LA hipsters who didn’t take a bus directly to a spacious loft and a job offered to them randomly in a coffee shop may shy away from the plot’s events, along with the film’s overly enthusiastic soundtrack (20 song credits in an 89 minute movie, how much of the budget was spent on song licensing?). The MTV crowd might appreciate the film as a cautionary tale of the dangers that lie ahead, but even then there are moments that ring false all across the board. Take for example Nathan’s eventual dancing ambition revelation, where he finally ends up at a club in a prime situation to show off what he loves most. Instead of a glimpse into the one thing that supposedly makes him happy, we are detoured into an inexplicable West Side Story-style dance-off followed by a too-obvious demonization of horny gay males in LA, who are perhaps less willing to pull people into bathrooms minutes upon meeting them for non-consensual sex than the movie might lead you to believe. Garden Party makes a good effort, some of the performances really stand out (3:10 To Yuma‘s Vinessa Shaw particularly), and it definitely attempts to offer a renewed voice for those struggling in the trenches. However, a number of moments within don’t quite hit their mark, and instead we get a perspective of real world struggle through the eyes of some who probably have less to complain about than anyone reading this review. Everyone has a story to tell, but how many offered are really worth the time?

[rating: 2.5/5]