Kill Your Friends (film)

Kill Your Friends is a 2015 British satirical dark comedy crime-thriller film directed by Owen Harris and written by John Niven based on his 2008 novel of the same name. The film stars Nicholas Hoult, Craig Roberts, Tom Riley, and Georgia King.[3] The film was selected to be shown in the City to City section of the 2015 Toronto Film Festival.[4] The film was released by StudioCanal on 6 November 2015.

Kill Your Friends
Theatrical release poster
Directed byOwen Harris
Produced by
Screenplay byJohn Niven
Based onKill Your Friends
by John Niven
Starring
Music by
CinematographyGustav Danielsson
Edited byBill Smedley
Production
companies
Distributed byStudioCanal
Release date
  • 5 August 2015 (2015-08-05) (Fantasy Filmfest)
  • 6 November 2015 (2015-11-06)
Running time
103 minutes[1]
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Box office$506,721[2]

Plot

London, 1997; the British music industry is on a winning streak. Britpop bands Blur, Oasis, Supergrass, and The Verve rule the airwaves and Cool Britannia is in full swing. Psychopathic twenty-seven-year-old A&R man Steven Stelfox (Nicholas Hoult) is slashing and burning his way through the music business, a world where 'no one knows anything' and where careers are made and broken by chance and the fickle tastes of the general public. Fuelled by greed, ambition and inhuman quantities of drugs, Stelfox lives the dream, as he searches for his next hit record. But as the hits dry up and the industry begins to change, Stelfox takes the concept of “killer tunes” to a murderous new level in a desperate attempt to salvage his career.

Cast

Production

On 12 February 2014, Nicholas Hoult joined the cast of the film to play lead role as (A&R) agent Steven Stelfox.[5] On 3 March 2014, Jim Piddock joined the film's cast to play Derek Sommers, the managing director of the record label.[6]

Filming

Principal photography commenced in London on 10 March 2014 and wrapped five weeks later.[3] The film was shot at Pinewood Studios, London and Greater London.

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 23% based on reviews from 60 critics, with an average rating of 4.50/10.The website's critical consensus reads, "Kill Your Friends takes futile stabs at black comedy, all strangled by a glut of tonal jumbles, bad casting, and unremittingly unlikable characters."[7] On Metacritic it has a score of 45% based on reviews from 19 critics "indicating mixed or average reviews".[8]

Andy Webster of The New York Times called it "A richly satisfying poison-pen letter to the music industry."[9] Stephen Dalton of The Hollywood Reporter wrote: "Kill Your Friends remixes a brutally funny novel into an entertaining if somewhat familiar big-screen tale of amoral, chemically-fuelled decadence."[10]

Andrew Barker of Variety wrote: "The film has its razor-sharp grace notes and a seductive stylishness, neither of which can override its relentlessly adolescent worldview."[11]

References
  1. "KILL YOUR FRIENDS (18)". British Board of Film Classification. 27 October 2015. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
  2. "Worldwide Box Office for Kill Your Friends". Retrieved 27 October 2019.
  3. Barraclough, Leo (10 March 2014). "Music Biz Satire 'Kill Your Friends' Starts to Shoot in London". variety.com. Retrieved 11 March 2014.
  4. "Sandra Bullock's 'Our Brand Is Crisis,' Robert Redford's 'Truth' to Premiere at Toronto". Variety. Retrieved 18 August 2015.
  5. Nissim, Mayer (12 February 2014). "Nicholas Hoult to star in John Niven's Kill Your Friends". digitalspy.co.uk. Retrieved 11 March 2014.
  6. Yamato, Jen (3 March 2014). "Jim Piddock Joins Britpop Comedy Adaptation 'Kill Your Friends'". Deadline.com. Retrieved 12 March 2014.
  7. "Kill Your Friends (2015)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 7 October 2020.
  8. "Kill Your Friends". Metacritic. Retrieved 1 October 2020.
  9. Webster, Andy (31 March 2016). "Review: In 'Kill Your Friends,' Corporate Climbing Can Prove Deadly (Published 2016)". The New York Times.
  10. Stephen Dalton (2015). "'Kill Your Friends': TIFF Review". The Hollywood Reporter.
  11. Barker, Andrew (12 September 2015). "Toronto Film Review: 'Kill Your Friends'". Variety.
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