It's My Party Movie Review

Yes, there are parties like the one in this movie; I know folks with enough stamina to handle that much grief. Eric Roberts plays Nick Stark, a young man dying of AIDS, who decides to throw a party “celebrating” his own suicide. His former lover Brandon Theis (Gregory Harrison) turns up, much to the resentment of Nick's other friends who feel that Brandon abandoned Nick when he needed him most. Nick's supportive best friend (Margaret Cho) is on hand, as well as his inconsolable mother (Lee Grant), uncomfortable father (George Segal), and even Roddy McDowall as a by-the-book gay Catholic in his late 60s who tells all and sundry that suicide is illegal, and a mortal sin, to boot. The weekend-long party continues anyway, and a star-studded guest list (Marlee Matlin, Bronson Pinchot, Bruce Davison, Devon Gummersall, Paul Regina, Olivia Newton-John, Christopher Atkins, Dennis Christopher, Ron Glass) pay their last farewells to Nick, who's determined to check out in his own way, in his own time. Written and directed by Randal Kleiser, It's My Party, along with 1990's superior (and shorter) Longtime Companion by Norman Rene, will be a time capsule for the AIDS era, when young people all over the world watched the long, lingering deaths of the best and brightest of their own generation. Before they lose each other forever, and Nick and Brandon discover what made them fall in love to begin with, audiences are advised to have an entire box of Kleenex within reach. (Try not to watch this one alone at night or on a double bill with Dark Victory.)

1995 (R) 120m/C Eric Roberts, Gregory Harrison, Marlee Matlin, Lee Grant, George Segal, Bronson Pinchot, Bruce Davison, Devon Gummersall, Roddy McDowall, Margaret Cho, Paul Regina, Olivia Newton-John, Christopher Atkins, Dennis Christopher, Ron Glass; D: Randal Kleiser; W: Randal Kleiser; C: Bernd Heinl; M: Basil Poledouris. VHS, LV, Closed Caption