HOW TO TALK TO GIRLS AT PARTIES

UK, 2017, 102 minutes, Colour.

Elle Fanning, Alex Sharp, Ruth Wilson, Abraham Lewis, Ethan Lawrence, Edward Petherbridge, Joanna Scanlan, Tom Brooke, Martin Tomlinson, Nicole Kidman, Matt Lucas.

Directed by John Cameron Mitchell.

Here is a film to divide opinions. Some have considered it weird and bonkers! Others have considered charming and a masterpiece. It has interesting credentials. It is based on a short story by popular writer, Neal Gaiman. It has been directed by John Cameron Mitchell, who made his mark with Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Shortbus, directing television programs as well as the feature film, Rabbit Hole.

Perhaps it will be the musical score that divides opinions. The action is set in the 1970s to the 1980s and a culmination in the early 1990s. It is the era of punk. And, there is a pervasive score of punk beat music and shout/scream lyrics. Definitely for fans. Others will beware.

And it is set in England, in the North, in the world of teenagers, glimpses of home, but action outside the home, in the clubs, the sense of breaking out and wanting freedoms.

But, there is the fantasy element – a group of aliens visiting Earth. One of them, in the form of an attractive girl, is befriended by a young man who is creating graphic novels. She is played by American, Elle Fanning, an actress who even at this age of her life, still in her teens, has shown extraordinary versatility and performance, serious roles, historic roles, comic roles, and, as here, a capacity for breaking out, even savagely. The young man is played by Alex Sharp.

There is a lot of activity at a club, the young man helping the alien to adapt, encourage her, even enabling her to do quite an extravagant punk performance, getting the applause of all those at the club.

And, there is a lot of odd and provocative behaviour, especially on the part of the aliens who seem to settle at the club, have their own agenda, want to return to their planet, relying on the interventions of an oddball alien, played by Matt Lucas.

However, one of the main reasons for non--punk fans seeing the film is the presence of Nicole Kidman. She is Boadicea, the punk manager of the club, the punk look, language and accent, behaviour, illustrating that Nicole Kidman is capable of performing all kinds of roles. She had worked with John Cameron Mitchell in Rabbit Hole and received an Oscar nomination.

This will be enough for fans to know whether they will want to see it. This was also be enough for non-fans to know that they might not want to see it (except for Nicole).