Elle Fanning Makes Her Punk-Music Debut In 'How To Talk To Girls At Parties'

The soft voice and otherworldly presence that Elle Fanning brought to “Somewhere,” “Maleficent,” “20th Century Women” and “The Beguiled” are magnified in John Cameron Mitchell ’s new movie, “How to Talk to Girls at Parties ,” mostly because she plays an alien unfamiliar with humans, who somehow don’t eat their offspring to sustain the species. Things don’t get more otherworldly than this.

That’s just one oddity in the punk-rock bacchanalia based on Neil Gaiman’s short story of the same name. In the exclusive clip above, Fanning, playing Zan, takes the stage at a nightclub frequented by the movie’s human protagonist, Enn (Alex Sharp), and run by Queen Boadicea (Nicole Kidman, doing her best impression of David Bowie in “Labyrinth”). In the scene, Zan does not want to be thought of as a tourist on the punk scene — or as one just passing through Earth. She wants to understand the culture that she and her fellow colonists are exploring. Along the way, a little romance enters her life.

“How to Talk to Girls at Parties” hits theaters May 25.