Kill Your Friends
Having a pop...
Originally positioned as a Britpop American Psycho, John Niven’s 2008 novel concerned a black-hearted 1990s music-biz A&R man who hates bands, loves bugle (cocaine) and is fully capable of Bateman-ing his besties. Based on Niven’s own script, director Owen Harris’ slick, big-screen version seems primed to follow in the footsteps of Filth, Jon S. Baird’s rabblerousing 2013 Irvine Welsh adaptation. But where Filth, the book, was an out-and-out masterpiece, Kill Your Friends, the book, is a slighter proposition that offers itself up to a little bit of cinematic streamlining.
Scheming, slandering – and worse – to beat his colleagues (including Craig Roberts and James Corden) to a promotion, Steven Stelfox (a chiseled, smartly cast Nicholas Hoult) is gleefully without conscience – in contrast to Filth’s Bruce Robertson, whose brutality hid a broken man. Boasting a blockrocking 1990s soundtrack (from Blur to Sneaker Pimps) and many funny moments, such as when Stelfox says Spice Girls wannabes the Song Birds would “gobble a fucking donkey to meet Mark Morrison”, Kill Your Friends is seductive in its nihilism, if not quite as persuasive as its protagonist. Schadenfreude (which Stelfox thinks is a Belgian trip-hop act) is its strongest suit, yet the secondary characters are rarely more than puppets. Georgia King, as a wily secretary, and Edward Hogg, as an earnest policeman, come closest to sharing the narcissistic spotlight.
When it comes to internal monologues, however, Niven is no Welsh, and for every brilliant bon mot, there are many rape, murder and disability jokes that speak only to the emptiness of the antihero’s soul – plus it’s not entirely clear if anyone knows which is which. Dastardly good fun when Stelfox is riding high, a little limp when he’s unravelling (like Robertson, to Radiohead), Kill Your Friends is a shiny new CD case with nothing inside. Which, on reflection, he might prefer. THE VERDICT Niven’s vision must have taken some stones to reach the big screen unsoftened, but the vicious glibness that represents its main draw and biggest flaw remains intact. › Certificate TBC Director Owen Harris Starring Nicholas Hoult, Craig Roberts, James Corden, Georgia King, Edward Hogg Screenplay John Niven Distributor Studiocanal Running Time TBC