There's a badly-acted 'Party' going down

Macaulay Culkin's first film since 1994's "Richie Rich" finds him looking about 16 and unable to carry a scene, much less a movie based around his character. "Party Monster" depicts the story of Michael Alig (Culkin), the darling of the late '80s and early '90s New York City club scene who boasted his own record label, magazine and well-known party night before he was arrested for murdering his drug dealer and roommate, Angel (Wilson Cruz).\nThe film looks and sounds great. The DVD format allows for stunning visuals and sound, and also includes trailers and an interview with Alig himself. A documentary by the same directors called "Party Monster: The Shockumentary" was released in 1999, and this version basically shows the same story from a slightly prettier and more fictionalized angle.\nThere is a certain morbid attention paid to this subject. It's interesting to watch what becomes a pinwheel of colors, music, drugs, sex and decadence. People have sat through decidedly bad movies about certain celebrated scenes ("24 Hour Party People" springs to mind) before, but it's impossible to confuse a desire to know what it was really like then with any profound appreciation of this overdressed mess.