Kill Your Friends DVD Review

“How far are you willing to go?” – Steven Stelfox

Kill Your Friends follows Nicholas Hoult as Steven Stelfox, an A&R man who works for Unigram (a London-based record label) and is out to sell whatever music product comes his way in order to process his career. Directed by Owen Harris, best known for Black Mirror episode ‘Be Right Back’ starring Hayley Atwell and Domhnall Gleeson, the screenplay is written by John Niven which, in turn, is based on his debut novel of the same name. Starting out in 1997 with Blur’s ‘Beetlebum’, Kill Your Friends offers up a twisted insight into the music industry. What’s particularly interesting, as the story develops, is that it’s based on Niven’s own experiences of his music career – presumably without all the murder.

Hoult’s Stelfox is your archetypal anti-hero, a man who doesn’t give a shit about who he hurts or what he says to the ‘smaller’ folk around him. However, he does bring the charm when required but this is usually backed by a cartload of drink and drugs to help convince people. Nicholas Hoult is a fine young Brit actor and although he doesn’t quite have that ‘everyday’ look, unlike James McAvoy in Filth, he still draws your attention effortlessly to this dislikeable character. Also, although there might be tendency to connect the breaking of the 4^th wall to the likes of The Wolf of Wall Street, as Stelfox regularly talks to the camera, the extras reveal this was originally conceived before Scorsese’s masterstroke.

Kill Your Friends takes a while to get into its stride but once there darkens the mood impressively. I feel the opening gambits are too stretched out and overplayed, there’s only so many times you can hear the C-word and ‘fuck’ before it feels forced, but as we get more complex it becomes more interesting. The switch is after the Prodigy-sound-tracked-head-bashing-scene of James Corden’s cocaine’d up Roger. It might sound a little warped, but this is where I started to feel the connection because up to that point Hoult’s character had sounded too arrogant and unreachable. Once we get under the skin, that’s when it gets more exciting.

Dosed with a slow-burning soundtrack, it crackles along nicely and juxtaposes efficiently as events turn from controlled to a more psychotic latter third. There’s no track that doesn’t work as we take a trip through Chemical Brothers, Oasis, Sneaker Pimps, Sach!, Blueboy, and Radiohead to name the ones that come to mind. There’s also a decent ensemble cast with the likes of Craig Roberts as Darren (Stelfox’s young intern), Corden’s amusingly named Roger Waters as a drugged-up ‘dancing bear’ who faces an almost literal early visual demise, and Stelfox’s secretary Rebecca (Georgina King) who turns out to be somewhat as twisted as he is. There’s also a mention for Ed Hogg as DC Woodman who brings something distinctive to the party.

Kill Your Friends feels like homage, in some senses, to the late 90s where music exec’s fought for the ‘next big thing’ to keep their label ticking over. I also felt the essence of Danny Boyle’s Shallow Grave and Trainspotting amongst the vibes going on. Once Hoult’s Stelfox starts to break down, this is when we get the full feeling of the film and with that dark, comic element it’s intoxicatingly messed up. It reminded me of the likes of Filth, The Rules of Attraction and American Psycho due to our lead sociopath taking us to another level of the mind and, for me, the latter parts are the best as we open up the human flaws and explore the dark side.

Review by Dan Bullock, April 2016.

Kill Your Friends is out on DVD and Blu-ray on 4th April 2016.