Director: Owen Harris

Cast: Nicholas Hoult, Ed Skrein, James Corden, Rosanna Arquette, Craig Roberts, Tom Riley, Georgia King, Joseph Mawle, Moritz Bleibtreu, Bronson Webb, Al Weaver, Damien Molony, Edward Hogg, Jim Piddock, Ella Smith,

Rating: TBC

Running Time: 100 mins

Release Date: November 6th, 2015

Nicholas Hoult is given the leading role he deserves in KILL YOUR FRIENDS, an energetically dark comedy that plays like a British version of AMERICAN PSYCHO, but on cocaine. 

After playing in some forgettable Hollywood roles and floating around the X-MEN films, Hoult is finally given a chance to shine here as A&R man Steven Stelfox, a vile, wholly unlikable man who will do anything to keep his job at the record label he works at. From signing bands that have no talent to not even keeping up with the latest gossip about the newest bands out there, Stelfox is awful at his job, but none of that matters as he blackmails, cheats and murders his way to the top.

Hoult has the most fun here, reveling in the opportunity to play a character so narcissistic and evil; none of the characters here are likable, which should become a problem when you’re supposed to be rooting for someone, but KILL YOUR FRIENDS is more interested in giving you as much violence, foul language and sex as you can handle, it throws everything its got at a wall and just hopes that it sticks, and most of it does. Sometimes it’s fun to just sit back and watch horrible people do horrible things.

While Hoult is a blast to watch, it’s a shame that the rest of the cast are sidestepped in order for him to take the spotlight. Ed Skrein is fun to watch as a cheap looking A&R man trying to push his knock off ‘Spice Girls’ as the ‘next big thing’, despite the fact that none of them can sing.

Craig Roberts delivers some wonderfully deadpan lines as Hoult’s assistant and plays as a great straight man to Hoult. Tom Riley also appears as what seems to be the only person who actually does his job well, which ends up putting him in Stelfox’s crosshairs.

The film has such a large collection of established and upcoming British talent that it’s unfortunate the film seems to forget that most of them exist halfway through, where the plot accelerates so quickly it seems to be heading towards an early end, before jolting back to life in its final half hour. It’s an alarming transition that doesn’t fit with the rest of the film, as it tries to bring our antagonist back down to earth, asking us to feel sympathy for a man who it’s clear we shouldn’t like, and don’t; KILL YOUR FRIENDS is at it’s best when it plays like a live action cartoon.

Managing to take enough potshots at the music industry and almost never taking itself seriously, the film is a grim parody of the music industry, complete with a venomous voice over from Hoult that starts out as enjoyably dark before growing tiresome as the film decided to have him interject with a comment every fifteen minutes, meaning that the long list of insults the film throws out, including jokes about rape and AIDS, become stale and worn out. Still, while the film manages to push its material too hard, Hoult manages to reign it back in, especially when things begin to feel tiresome.

KILL YOUR FRIENDS is an energetic and sharp satire of the British music industry and a manic mix of comedy, murder and music, led by a dark but hugely enjoyable performance from Nicholas Hoult, in a lead role that allows his natural charisma to be front and centre.

Verdict:

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