PARTY GIRL (1995)

A Parker Sym-Pose-ium with Emily Schultz

With neither bloodshed nor ceremony, Parker Posey quietly, effortlessly, became our queen. In films by Linklater, Araki, Hartley, Baumbach, and Guest, she was a total actor, an indescribable presence, untainted by studio polish or cynical career moves. For late Gen X and early Millennials she was our DIY star and if she yelled “air raid” at us, even now, we would drop to the ground.

1995’s Party Girl would be her debut as a lead. She plays Mary, a downtown New York scene-queen who vogues at Nell’s, steals couture clothing from uptown parties, and is arrested after a rent party. Bailed out by Judy, her librarian godmother, Mary goes on a mission to prove she can be a serious person and commit to a life as a librarian. Party Girl is the debut from director Daisy von Scherler Mayer— a low-budget miracle of a film that uses screwball comedy to capture a now-vanished NYC and the joys and pain of being 23.

Emily Schultz and I have collectively seen a lot of Parker Posey movies. We’re talking …