Director: Lone Scherfig

Starring: Max Irons, Sam Clafin & Natalie Dormer

Running Time: 107 mins

Release date: 19 Sept, 2014 (UK)

Worldwide Gross: N/A

 

 

 

 

Basic Plot:

 

Upper-class Oxford First Years Miles (Max Irons) and Alistair (Sam Clafin) become rivals when scouted by the university’s notorious Riot Club. Founded in 1780 in honour of the libertine Lord Ryot (Harry Lloyd) the club is a collection of wealthy and debauched young men who specialise in outrageous and destructive behaviour. The biggest club tradition is lavish dinner parties where members gorge themselves on food and drink before trashing the establishment, trusting their ability to buy their way out of trouble later. On Miles and Alistair’s inaugural dinner, the insecurities and emotional dysfunctions of the group soon surface resulting in the savage beating of the landlord. The aftermath tests the commitment to the club and its sociopathic nature.

 

Clock Watching? = 8/20

 

The Riot Club suffers heavily in the process of adapting Laura Wade's stage play ‘Posh’ to the big screen. The dinner party, which serves as the majority of the play, starts to wear thin long before it reaches its climax. An issue with stories based around bad behaviour is that often as much as audiences are repulsed by decadent acts they inevitably also find themselves charmed by them (see Wolf of Wall Street). The Riot Club finds a novel solution to this by making the club members and their various antics the most charmless thing imaginable. There’s no real characterisation to any of them besides an aloof sense of smugness and bitter entitlement. A knock-on effect is that it’s hard to buy scenes in which others are supposed to be charmed by them such as Miles’s tepid romance with working-class student Lauren (Holliday Granger). The best thing to say is that when the veneers come crashing down it has a visceral quality that hits hard, even if your concern is for the innocent bystanders instead of the main characters.

 

Oscar Performances? = 12/20

 

A nuanced performance would have made Miles a far more endearing character but unfortunately Irons puts in a quiet pretty-boy routine that never sells. Clafin captures the constant chip on Alistair’s shoulder but can’t loosen up enough to be vicariously enjoyable. Instead the actors here are the ones who disappear into their spoiled personas such as Freddie Fox (last seen in Pride) as the impotent club president. Ditto Olly Alexander as the waifish boarding school boy Toby whose sexual inadequacies are always on show. The film also finds good use for the calculating cool of Natalie Dormer who makes a brief appearance as a picky prostitute.

 

Lights, Camera, Direction? =10/20

 

Scenes with long runtimes can often be saves with inventive cinematography which sadly isn’t the case here. All-too-similar shots make the club dinner feel repetitive, only contributing to how much it drags. The stilted cuts have a habit of killing some of the films best gags, a reminder to never underestimate the relationship between editing and comic timing. Just about the only good thing about the direction is how well it portrays the otherworldly ‘Oxfordness’ of Oxford. Dark oak furniture and Georgian masonry resemble a dark Hogwarts where the only power is money. Plus the period-set prologue with Lord Ryot feels like something pulled from a much better film.

 

Tell a Friend? = 14/20

 

The film is by no means bad, simply average considering the ripeness and relevancy of the subject (if you’re British that is). Invite that one friend who can’t stand Downton Abbey and wants to spend 107 minutes laughing at the elitist and esoteric antics of the 1%. If they’re at university themselves they’ll especially enjoy it, even if the writing is a little outdated (trust me £27,000 doesn’t cover three years tuition anymore!).

 

Again? = 6/20

 

The set-up is paint-by-numbers and the jokes are only intermittently funny. The Riot Club may be riotous enough for the initial viewing but leaves you with a grim hangover. Not one you’ll want to go back to soon.

 

Total = 50%

 

A decidedly average adaptation that, like its characters, is not as outrageous, insightful or funny as it thinks it is.

 

by Liam Macloed