Back when I was just a kid, I had an obsession with Flight of the Navigator. A 12-year-old boy falls into a ravine and disappears for 8 years. He comes to, not having aged a day, with a subconscious secret implanted by an alien race to control their ships. By the end of the movie, he knows he’s going to be locked up for life because his secret was so public, and demands to be returned to his original timeline, knowing that his adventure will remain a secret. That movie was directed by Randal Kleiser, a director whose movies are far better known than he is.

Kleiser’s first movie of note was The Boy in the Plastic Bubble, a television movie noted for an early John Travolta. Later, he would direct Grease, The Blue Lagoon, Big-Top Pee Wee, White Fang and Honey I Blew Up The Kid before blowing all his cache on the personal project, the mid-90s AIDS drama It’s My Party.

When Nick Stark (Eric Roberts) is diagnosed as positive, he’s kicked out his home by his boyfriend, Brandon (Gregory Harrison) as the credits finish rolling. A year later, Nick’s eyes and mind are deteriorating, and he throws one last two-day party to say goodbye to everybody before he finally kills himself. Dotted with a whole litany of cameos (Sally Kellerman, Olivia Newton-John, Bronson Pinchot, George Segal, Lee Grant, Marlee Matlin, Margaret Cho, Elvira, etc etc), Kleiser almost seems like he’s pulling all his final strings before retreating from big Hollywood (he later directed the TV remake of Shadow of a Doubt, and the bizarre Red Riding Hood).

But, in reality, Kleiser was inspired by his ex-lover, Harry Stein, who threw a similar farewell party in 1992. Like every personal and earnest AIDS drama, it’s almost a little too close to its topic, but it works best in its first half where Kleiser casually hangs out with the constructed family of the time. He addresses the perils of the time, and makes notes in a simple emotionally powerful statement. The second half, by contrast, forces melodrama into the story making sure the point is made clear by playing Dolly’s version of I Will Always Love You twice. Still, it’s a fascinating, if somewhat forgotten, look into the culture at the time.

It’s My Party airs on MGMHD at 2am on Sunday evening.