Retrospective - 1996's "It's My Party"
One of the saddest AIDS-era gay movies, this film centers on a successful architect who quickly progresses through the stages of "I tested positive" > "My lover left me" > "I am terminally ill" > "Time to say goodbye."
Before his unpleasant AIDS-related death can occur, he plans a two-day house party for friends and family, at the end of which he plans a painless suicide. He invites his weepy mother (Lee Grant), his ballsy deaf sister (Marlee Matlin), and assorted queer peers. Olivia Newton-John is there, too. Mild hilarity and intense weeping occur. The ex-boyfriend shows up. It's a roller coaster of highs and lows - mostly lows - and it stars Eric Roberts.
Who's seen it? Who liked it? How does it hold up compared to other AIDS films, such as "Philadelphia" or "Our Sons?"
| by Anonymous | reply 8 | November 27, 2022 10:42 AM
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I remember buying the soundtrack just for ONJ’s song, “Don’t Cut Me Down”. The movie and the song made me cry.
Overall, though, the movie could have been made for TV (I.e. wasn’t very cinematic, kind of melodramatic). The story was rather cliche and formulaic/ gay guy as victim.
| by Anonymous | reply 1 | May 6, 2022 9:09 PM
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I was in my early 20s and dating an older guy when he had friends over to watch this. The amount of wailing and tears these old queens did during this movie was so over the top I almost burst out laughing.
| by Anonymous | reply 2 | May 6, 2022 9:25 PM
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After living in WeHo in the mid-90s, it became more real to me seeing some of the same exact locations and shit. I think it stands up as well as the others.
| by Anonymous | reply 3 | May 6, 2022 10:30 PM
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Bump. I just saw this movie tonight and I really wanna discuss it.
| by Anonymous | reply 4 | November 27, 2022 5:53 AM
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Is George Segal in this much?
| by Anonymous | reply 5 | November 27, 2022 6:03 AM
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Roberts is quite good in this. It suggests the kind of career he might have had. Early on, in King of the Gypsies, Raggedy Man, and Star 80, he had been one of the brightest and most promising younger male actors, and he did get that Oscar nomination for Runaway Train. A lot of things went wrong (drug problems, other personal problems, saying yes to any direct-to-video genre junk that would pay him, letting the tics overwhelm his performances, getting typecast as psychos and heavies), but once in a while you see him in something and realize, yeah, he's always been able to raise his game.
| by Anonymous | reply 6 | November 27, 2022 6:23 AM
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I think it is a unique film.
An actual AIDS movie made during the pandemic by a gay filmmaker about his own irl ex-lover. At the end of the movie if you look quickly and closely at the wall display of photos of the men lost to AIDS by the leads when he posts Eric Roberts' picture, the picture just above his is Harry Stein, the real life former lover of Randal Kleiser who is the guy Eric Roberts is playing.
I think the film successfully portrays in a serio-comic fashion the rush of emotions that accompany the unusual idea to throw one's self an end of life going away party.
| by Anonymous | reply 7 | November 27, 2022 7:19 AM
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I have NEVER cried so hard at a movie. I had also smoked a couple of bowls prior to viewing and was NOT expecting it.
| by Anonymous | reply 8 | November 27, 2022 10:42 AM
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