Director: Lone Scherfig.
Cast: Douglas Booth, Sam Claflin, Max Irons, Natalie Dormer, Holliday Grainger.
Certificate: 15.
Run Time: 107 minutes.
Synopsis: Adapted from the Laura Wade stage play Posh, the film follows two first-year Oxford University students, Alistair (Clafin) and Miles (Irons), as they join the notorious Riot Club, a ‘secret’ organisation for a select group of the privileged. After passing their initiation the pair attend the annual dinner at which the club’s real agenda is revealed.
Spoiler alert – there are no actual riots in THE RIOT CLUB. If you’ve stumbled across the name and are hoping for a Danny Dyer led Brit-flick about the events of summer 2011 you’re in for some major disappointment. THE RIOT CLUB actually started life on the stage, as show Posh, and deals with an exclusive society amongst the elite of Oxford University. The school is still heavily steeped in tradition and opulence, and is home of the Bullingdon Club whose previous members include George Osborne, Boris Johnson and this nation’s current leader, David Cameron. Many believe the events of Posh and its Riot Club to be a fictionalised version of this organisation, something that writer Laura Wade has vehemently denied.
The film opens with a brief introduction to the titular club’s inception before jumping forwards to the present day where we meet two privileged freshers, Alistair and Miles as they embark on life at Oxford University. Both are invited to the illustrious Riot Club and both use the outlet in different ways. Before joining the group Alistair is a rather stiff, polite, timid creature, but through inclusion morphs into a much more out-spoken borderless brat; whereas Irons’ Miles just wants to have fun.
As you would expect from a film about the upper-class the cast are all exceptionally posh. It is easy to believe that they were all born with that silver spoon in their mouths, which isn’t bad when you consider that there is an Australian and an American amongst the group. Each member is a different kind of posh, giving each one their own recognisable persona. Of course not every member is given a well-fleshed-out role, instead the focus is primarily on the two newest recruits. The different approaches to high society life are shown through the warring debate partners Alistair and Miles, with Miles happy to mingle with people whom Alistair sees as beneath him. THE HUNGER GAMES fans may find some scenes distressing as Claflin’s Alistair is as far removed from Finnick as you can get.
THE RIOT CLUB plays very much like a boys Gossip Girl – Douglas Booth’s Harry is a beautiful blend of both Chuck Bass and Nate Archibald – meets The Inbetweeners, with the first portion of the story seeing boys being boys. The whole first segment sets about trying to breakdown your stereotyped opinion of the ‘spoilt rich’ trying to show that they’re just like ‘us’. They hang out in pubs, binge drink, they even play on the Playstation, but just as you start to warm to them we reach the dinner party. It is during these scenes that the film is at its strongest, embodying its stage-show origins perfectly. We are treated to several monologues and discussions which are so engaging that you forget you’ve just been watching a group in the same room for a long while. Just as we’ve let our guard down and accepted the affluent band of students the rug is pulled-out from under us and their true natures are revealed. The words in the tagline from the poster – ‘filthy, rich, spoilt, rotten’ perfectly encapsulates the club’s core.
During this middle dinner section a rather dark and intense trip down the rabbit-hole begins, building-up to a brutal crescendo. Unfortunately once the crescendo has been reached the film begins to peter out a little. The aftermath of the fateful dinner rushes past all too quickly. The relationships have been built-up so intricately previously that it a little disappointing how easily the plot resolves itself. This slightly weak and abruptly-ended third act detracts from what is otherwise an engaging dramatic thriller.
A debauched hedonistic joyride behind the closed doors of the elite which potentially showcases just what our current leaders got up to at Oxford.
[usr=4] THE RIOT CLUB is in cinemas now.
