'The Riot Club' may lack bite, though it's an interesting movie that's probably worth your cash this weekend.
The Riot Club, formerly known as 'Posh' and based on Laura Wade's 2010 play, is a difficult movie to unpick. Some early cinemagoers have spoken of feeling mixed emotions - this is ultimately a satire of the debauched private society Bullingdon Club, though Lone Scherfig's movie makes it difficult to despise these young men, effortlessly portrayed by Max Irons, Sam Claflin and Douglas Booth.
The Riot Club features an energetic, talented young cast
"It's a sharp satirical cartoon of English class warfare and class conspiracy - though it fudges a final point of plot-jeopardy and I suspect a director like Thomas Vinterberg or Lars von Trier would have made it a hardcore nightmare," said Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian.
"Brits might object to such an enraging portrayal, which veers between salacious and cynical, though Scherfig's unique perspective is just one more reason she was such a smart choice to handle this material," said Peter Debruge of Variety.
"Scherfig gives us the worst of both worlds: there is none of the infectious glee of bad behaviour but plenty of hand-wringing in the morning after. Her film is all hangover," said Ryan Gilbey of the New Statesman.
Hey it's those Riot Club scamps
"While the dark drama is never dull, its portrait of upper-crust entitlement run amok is seldom surprising either," said David Rooney of the Hollywood Reporter.
"It's almost as if the film has been designed to make fans of Downton Abbey realise the error of their ways. Are you impressed - aroused, even - by the stinking rich? If so, get ready to hold your nose," said Charlotte O'Sullivan of This Is London.
More: 'The Riot Club' is far more than a posh knees up
Scherfig is keen to express that the Riot Club boys exist separately from regular students at Oxford. During an interview with the Oxford Student newspaper, the director explained, "We are all in complete awe of Oxford, for very good reasons! The more you research that place, the more you understand how incredibly valuable it is. And we also hope to show it; when you see a glimpse of a tutorial - we hope to show that these boys are very isolated from the Oxford world."
The Riot Club is out now.
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