Director: Owen Harris
Writer: John Niven (Screenplay)
Starring: Nicholas Hoult, James Corden, Georgia King, Craig Roberts, Jim Piddock
Plot: An A&R man working at the height of the Britpop music craze goes to extremes in order to find his next hit.
Tagline – Lies. Betrayal. Murder. Just another day in the music industry.
Runtime: 1 Hour 43 Minutes
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: Not For Me
Story: Kill Your Friends starts in 1997 the heights of the Britpop movement, where we follow and A&R man Steven Stelfox (Hoult) who knows how to play the system to stay in power with the cocaine binges. He looks to stay on step ahead of his co-workers by pushing limits to what risks can be taken and even killing one that gets in his way.
When Steven hears the potential next hottest band, he goes to extreme lengths to make the deal happen racing against the fellow producers looking to get the next biggest catch in the industry.
Thoughts on Kill your Friends
Characters – Steven Stelfox is the music producer that tells us the story of how he was riding high in the industry during the Britpop era of music, how they spent more time on drugs than making music happen and how they will do anything to push another member of office under the bus to stay in their high life. The rest of the characters we meet are fellow producers, the bands and a cop trying to get to them bottom of a murder.
Performances – Nicholas Hoult takes the leading role in the film and is easily the most interesting part of this film, his breaking the fourth wall gets the laughs needed and by the end he is the only part of the film I enjoyed.
Story – The story takes us into the world of the Britpop where we follow one man who is clearly out of his comfort zone with his job, where he has been blagging to job over knowing the role he should be performing. It isn’t the most interesting because you do feel like it is mostly fictional instead of trying to be a fact-based look at the world.
Comedy/Crime – The comedy used in the film shows us just how far Steven will go to make things happen, while the crime side also show sus where he will go to keep his job.
Settings – The films settings show us the party life the characters will be entering while trying to find the next hit band, it also shows how the characters are self-centred.
Scene of the Movie – Steven goes too far.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – it paints how bad the industry is.
Final Thoughts – This isn’t the most interesting of films, it is a subject matter I personally don’t care for and it doesn’t paint anybody in the industry to be remotely nice.
Overall: Just one that doesn’t work for me.
Rating
