'The Riot Club' is a shrewdly observed satire with an excellent, energetic cast.
The Riot Club, a richly observed satire from Lone Scherfig, is one of several strong British movies to hit the big screen in September and its young cast - particularly Max Irons, Sam Claflin and Douglas Booth - ensure this has a serious sting in its tail.
The Riot Club's talented cast has come in for acclaim
The 'club' in question is a fictionalised version of the Bullingdon Club - the exclusive society at Oxford University known for having David Cameron, George Osborne and Boris Johnson amongst its alumni.
"Conflicting our sympathies serves the work well. Both play and film button-push, but the substantial changes made in the transfer soften the grotesque and muddy the waters," said Catherine Shoard of the Guardian.
More: check out our Max Irons pictures
More: check out our Sam Claflin pictures
"An effective and shrewdly observed satire, with a handful of standout performances and a gloriously bitter sting in the tail," said Emma Dibdin of Digital Spy.
"Powerful and illuminating," said Mark Adams of Screen International.
The Bullingdon Club
The Riot Club appears to be something of a departure for director Scherfig, previously best known for An Education, with Carey Mulligan, and later One Day, with Anne Hathaway. However, her detachment from the problems with class and privilege in British education may have helped make a more rounded picture.
When asked by Interview magazine whether she had experienced anything like the Bullingdon Club, Scherfig said: "No, because that was in Denmark and it was totally social-democratic. In those years we had the smallest difference between the richest and the poorest people in the entire world. I don't come from that at all, but it's all the more fascinating to me."
The Riot Club is set for release in UK cinemas on Friday (September 19, 2014).
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