Director Owen Harris and writer John Niven must have studied American Psycho, The Wolf Of Wall Street and even Vampire's Kiss among others until they knew these films like the back of their own hands. Their new film, Kill Your Friends (based on the novel by Niven) is another film about an insane businessman who manages to win over both his higher ups and the audience by being so utterly charming in his looniness. While this film may not reach the great heights of something like American Psycho or The Wolf Of Wall Street, it does manage to be a thoroughly satisfying dark comedy with a lot of tricks up its sleeve, not the least of which is Nicolas Hoult, an actor who I am more fond of when he plays the bastard rather than the hero, although he does admittedly juggle both here.
In the film, Hoult plays Stelfox, a man who spends his days listening to music from aspiring artists and recruiting a select few of them for the record company he works for. The very beginning narration features Stelfox talking about how only a few of these wanna be musicians will actually get anywhere in the industry and the rest are destined to be forgotten about. Stelfox will do anything to get ahead in the business, even if that includes....well, see the film for yourself.
On a daily basis, Stelfox seems to look around the meetings the record company has with disdain. Each and every coworker of his has something completely wrong with them. This could include Nikki (Ella Smith) being way too obese or Waters (James Corden) consistently being drugged up. A lot of what makes Stelfox charming despite his horribleness is his ability to be so completely unaware of his own many shortcomings yet zoom in on everyone else's. In this way, he reminded me a bit of a darker, more disturbing version of Steve Carrell's Michael Scott. Both are men so thoroughly oblivious about themselves that they become more likable for it.
The film then follows Stelfox as he tries to push his way to the top and take an aspiring young producer, Darren (Craig Roberts) under his wing. The film goes to some extremely dark places but it never feels like it's going there just for the sake of being dark. Stelfox is a legitimately messed up man and the situations he finds himself in are entirely of his own doing. It always feels as if these are the scenarios that someone like this would end up in. Harris and Niven do a great job of portraying the fact that no greater force is causing these situations, just the completely ridiculous psyche of Stelfox. Even when some situations don't work (a scene involving Rosanna Arquette as a prospective client comes to mind,) the film feels authentic. You totally believe that this man could make it far in an industry that's a complete dog eat dog world. The film also does a great job with tone. At points, it becomes so disturbing and weird that calling it a dark comedy may not even be accurate but then a fairly funny scene is waiting right there to be enjoyed a bit later. These tones are balanced fairly well considering how easily both could have screwed the other one up.
I can't say Kill Your Friends is by any means great. It does wrap up in a bit too tidy of a manner for this type of film and as I have mentioned, there are some scenes that just do not work. However, an excellent performance from Hoult and an extremely strong supporting cast make this film a thoroughly enjoyable dark comedy well worth seeing.
(3 and 1/2 out of 5 Stars, The film is Not Rated.)
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