The Riot Club

Privilege and peer pressure amid the dreaming spires of Oxford set the tone for this drama about university students who are members of the elite boys' club of the title. New recruits Max Irons and Sam Claflin are ushered into the club's world of debauchery, but the excesses get out of hand after one particularly wild behind-closed-doors dinner. Director Lone Scherfig (An Education) paints on a broader canvas than that of screenwriter Laura Wade's original claustrophobic stage play, Posh. Consequently, the action takes a while to get into gear and the film's examination of wealth and class is less tightly focused. The ensemble cast works well together, with special mention going to Douglas Booth as the charismatic centre of the club, but the escalating destructiveness threatens to become too sensationalist, losing sight of Wade's core study of aristocratic entitlement.