He's Not A Dick, He's A Patron

OK I'll admit it. Last night I watched the movie Party Girl for the very first time.

Yes, despite going through a year and half of library school and working professionally for almost seven years - I had not watched Party Girl up until last night.

Party Girl is an independent movie that follows shallow Mary (Parker Posey) through her hip, vain existence. She has no real job, a closet full of clothes she obtained by less than legal means, and makes a living throwing parties. Then she gets busted by the cops and needs bail money - so she turns to her godmother, Judy, a librarian. In order to pay Judy back, Mary takes a job as a library clerk. In between conquering the Dewey Decimal system, Mary makes some revelations on the meaning of her life and falls in love with a falafel stand guy.

The librarian jokes in this movie are really quite good. When Mary first meets up with Judy at the library, there's a patron there bitching about how all the books he wants are purposely misfiled so it must be a conspiracy. After he huffs off, Mary declares "What a dick!" With Judy replying, "He's not a dick, he's a patron." Judy also has a wonderful riff on Melville Dewey and how his sexist opinions continue to haunt the profession. I'm not sure if non-librarians would find it nearly as funny, but dang if I didn't enjoy it.

My only quibble with this film is that throughout the movie Mary has a pretty kick-ass wardrobe. Think mid-1990s club scene. Lots of bright colors and vintage designs. Then she decides to make library science her career and poof! She puts on a fairly conservative suit, tames her hair and slips on the glasses. Well we can't have everything I suppose.

I finally caught Party Girl thanks to my copious movie channels and TiVo. I do recommend it. It's a fun little movie about a shallow girl growing up. The library stuff is just gravy.