X-Men star Nicholas Hoult plays a killer A&R man in music industry satire.
By Chris Tilly
Kill Your Friends kicks off with the sound of cocaine being snorted, before some of that cocaine is licked up by a dog, and then finally the person doing the coke urinates on James Corden. As opening scenes go, it certainly grabs the attention. But the film then continues in that vein, endeavouring to shock and stun for its 100-minute run-time.
Trouble is, what initially appears outrageous quickly becomes tiresome, the film trying far too hard to startle when it should be concentrating on telling a good story about characters an audience might want to spend time with.
We want to hear it.
John Niven has written the script, adapted from his own 2008 book, which in turn was loosely based on his experiences as a record company A&R man during the Britpop explosion of the 1990s – though in the book the lead character also went on a killing spree, which Niven very much did not in real life.
It’s an entertaining read but suffers when compared to Brett Easton Ellis’s American Psycho, which covers similar ground but with more bite and depth. Unfortunately this adaptation hasn’t been able to right those wrongs, the result a superficial satire that’s sporadically funny but eventually runs out of steam.
Steven Stelfox is the coke-snorting music man in question, and the year is 1997, when swaggering British guitar bands briefly ruled the world. But Steven isn’t interested in lyrics or melodies. In one of the character’s many speeches to camera, he admits to not even liking music, explaining that his only obligation is to make money for the record company which in turn will lead to career progression and the power that he craves.
Steven travels to Cannes, Austin and New York in search of the next big thing, which brings him into contact with unhinged rapper Rage, unsigned indie band The Lazies, a desperate group of Spice Girls-wannabes, and a dance act with a catchy tune about oral sex.
Driven by “drugs, alcohol, peer pressure and fear” Stelfox decides that signing successful artists isn’t enough, and so to better scale the corporate ladder, he starts bumping off the competition.
But comedy and bursts of hardcore violence make uneasy bedfellows, and a police investigation into Steven’s wrongdoing only serves to slow proceedings down, giving the film a thriller element it really doesn’t need.
We want to hear it.
Kill Your Friends is much better when taking down the industry itself, the early scenes reminiscent of The Player, if The Player had been filled with swear-words and 1990s pop culture references. So there are mean-spirited but very funny jokes at the expense of Mark Morrison, Menswear and other forgotten musical acts from the era.
Nicholas Hoult – best known as Beast in the recent X-Men movies and Nux in Fury Road – is all charming malevolence in the lead, most notably when breaking the third-wall to deliver those foul-mouthed soliloquies to camera. But Steven himself isn’t a particularly interesting protagonist, and with little effort made to get under his skin or turn him into a believable, three-dimensional character, you never really care about his journey.
Hoult’s well supported by a fine cast, with Jim Piddock hilarious as a record company boss with anger management issues, Craig Roberts on scene-stealing form as a wet-behind-the-ears scout, and Osy Ikhile immense as the rapper who consumes Scarface-levels of blow before going full Colonel Kurtz.
Music is also predictably good, the Junkie XL score something of a banger, and the soundtrack featuring classic tracks by the likes of Blur, Oasis, The Prodigy and Radiohead.
But the storyline is thin in comparison and proceedings becoming les interesting as they progress. The tone fluctuates wildly, the thriller element simply doesn’t work, and while Stelfox is initially amusing, his adolescent world view quickly becomes tiresome.
Kill Your Friends starts out an enjoyably nasty satire of the music industry, but loses focus when a thriller element is thrown into the mix. And while Nicholas Hoult makes a fine Steven Stelfox, the character isn’t interesting enough to sustain interest for the duration, making for a somewhat empty and forgettable viewing experience.
