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Review

A star rating of 3 out of 5.

Nicholas Hoult's ruthless music exec makes Simon Cowell look like a choirboy in Kill Your Friends. First-time feature director Owen Harris gives this black comedy pace, pizzazz and lots of 1990s nostalgia with a soundtrack featuring Blur, Oasis and Radiohead. But what he doesn't do is convey the fear and desperation that leads A&R man Steven Stelfox (Hoult) to murder. That's despite the fact that writer John Niven adapted the script from his own bestselling novel based on his time in the music business. Instead, Harris aims to make Stelfox funny and cool. Hoult certainly has the cheekbones for that and inspires just the right morbid fascination as he delivers commentary straight-to-camera in High Fidelity style - with extra venom. He kills his closest rival (James Corden) early on, before Ed Hogg comes knocking as a homicide detective with a demo tape in his pocket. But the investigation is subordinate to Stelfox's steep descent into violence and depravity. The altered ending is over-amped and Stelfox's actions don't ring true in the way American Psycho did, but this film is driven more by devilish humour and a fashionable ennui with manufactured pop. Not for the fainthearted, or Spice Girls fans.

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Credits

Cast

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StelfoxNicholas Hoult
DarrenCraig Roberts
WatersJames Corden
Parker-HallTom Riley
TrellickJoseph Mawle
RebeccaGeorgia King
RentEd Skrein
Derek SommersJim Piddock
DC WoodhamEdward Hogg
BarbaraRosanna Arquette
RudiMoritz Bleibtreu

Crew

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DirectorOwen Harris (2)

Details

Theatrical distributor
Studio Canal
Released on
2015-11-06
Languages
English
Guidance
Violence, swearing, sex scenes, drug abuse
Available on
Blu-ray
Formats
Colour
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