So, here's a movie I want to tell you about: it debuted at a drive-in in South Carolina this past September, I just screened it on Vimeo, and it's now streaming on Amazon (coming to Prime on March 30).
Party Hard is actually not about a party per se, but a night of bar hopping and binge drinking by three guys in their twenties in Columbia, South Carolina. At its best, the movie evokes slivers of After Hours, American Graffiti, and Diner, and that's not at all because Party Hard is some kind of period piece. It's because the interactions of three guys somewhere between throwing up and discussing Immanuel Kant -- with each other and the world around them -- transcend time. Or at least, most times. By which I mean, Party Hard is very much a narrative situated before COVID-19, and I hope not too far in our future as far as that pandemic is concerned, too.
One of the real standouts of Party Hard is the music, all by generally non-famous local artists. I really enjoyed every song in the movie, but my two favorites are Shadows by Boo Hog and Hey Beautiful by E. Z. Shakes. Hey, I'm in that kind of mood today.
The dialogue ranges from funny to profound, with the inevitable skullduggery and striving for wise-cracking that typifies this sort of story (creds to writers William Nicholas Clay & Stephen T. Canada), and the directing by William Nicholas Clay is effective. The three guys are well played by Hunter Bolton, Brian Forbes, and Ty Rowe, as are the women in their lives (who have much smaller roles, Amy Brower and Elizabeth Jennings are on screen the longest). For what it's worth, I regretted that Chandler (Hunter) couldn't talk Lauren (Giulia Marie Dalbec) into ... well, see the movie.
To return to our off-screen reality: one of the unexpected consequences of the pandemic is the revival of drive-in theaters. But Party Hard will be enjoyed on many more screens than that.
