"The Party Never Stops" has to be one of the saddest films ever produced by the Lifetime network. It succeeds to the degree that it could be screened as a warning to youngsters about the dangers of binge drinking.
Young Jessica (Jess) is a gifted athlete, a runner who is also an honors student. But when she arrives in college, she immediately becomes addicted to partying: keggers, games, hook-ups, and hangovers.
Jess's roommate Shanna is a well-intentioned enabler, a best friend and tormentor, as Jess is encouraged to attend the parties. As a consequence, Jess falls behind in her classes and fails to even make the track team. Eventually, she is caught on camera during spring break with her mother viewing her daughter's exhibitionist tendencies online. The mom can only exclaim, "drunk, slack, alien" to describe her daughter's condition.
It takes a mother's intervention for Jess to confront her profound loneliness and to admit that "I just liked being liked" during the drinking sessions. In other words, she didn't even like drinking. The senseless death of Shanna marks a profound melancholy in a film that makes a strong statement about the vulnerability and frailty of a human being who is unable to admit a weakness and to say "no."
Young Jessica (Jess) is a gifted athlete, a runner who is also an honors student. But when she arrives in college, she immediately becomes addicted to partying: keggers, games, hook-ups, and hangovers.
Jess's roommate Shanna is a well-intentioned enabler, a best friend and tormentor, as Jess is encouraged to attend the parties. As a consequence, Jess falls behind in her classes and fails to even make the track team. Eventually, she is caught on camera during spring break with her mother viewing her daughter's exhibitionist tendencies online. The mom can only exclaim, "drunk, slack, alien" to describe her daughter's condition.
It takes a mother's intervention for Jess to confront her profound loneliness and to admit that "I just liked being liked" during the drinking sessions. In other words, she didn't even like drinking. The senseless death of Shanna marks a profound melancholy in a film that makes a strong statement about the vulnerability and frailty of a human being who is unable to admit a weakness and to say "no."