Rent Kill Your Friends (2015)
2.7 of 5 from 78 ratings
1h 39min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- A&R man Steven Stelfox (Nicholas Hoult) is slashing and burning his way through the music business, a world where 'no one knows anything' and where careers are made and broken by chance and the fickle tastes of the general public. Fuelled by greed, ambition and inhuman quantities of drugs, Stelfox lives the dream, as he searches for his next hit record. But as the hits dry up and the industry begins to change, Stelfox takes the concept of "killer tunes" to a murderous new level in a desperate attempt to salvage his career. Based on John Niven's best-selling novel, 'Kill Your Friends' is a dark, satirical and hysterically funny evisceration of the Nineties music business.
- Actors:
- Nicholas Hoult, Ed Skrein, James Corden, Rosanna Arquette, Craig Roberts, Tom Riley, Joseph Mawle, Georgia King, Bronson Webb, Moritz Bleibtreu, Osy Ikhile, Edward Hogg, Al Weaver, Rosanna Hoult, Damien Molony, Jim Piddock, Ella Smith, Hugh Skinner, Alannah Olivia, Deborah Rosan
- Directors:
- Owen Harris
- Producers:
- Gregor Cameron, Will Clarke
- Voiced By:
- Tony Paul West, Samantha Hindman, Laurent-Charles Lucas, Darren Deans, Andrei Csolsim
- Writers:
- John Niven
- Studio:
- StudioCanal
- Genres:
- Comedy, Drama
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 04/04/2016
- Run Time:
- 103 minutes
- Languages:
- English Audio Description, English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
- Subtitles:
- English Hard of Hearing
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Widescreen 2.39:1
- Colour:
- Colour
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- B
- Bonus:
- Interview with Writer John Niven and Director Owen Harris
- Cast Interviews with Nicholas Hoult, Craig Roberts, Ed Skrein
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Reviews (2) of Kill Your Friends
Music Business Fantasy Satire - set in 1996/7 when record companies still had power - Kill Your Friends review by PV
OK, so this movie clearly owes a lot of American Psycho - and I suppose it's a question of personal taste if you like the over-the-top satire or not. Personally, I wish it'd just been a more real world tale of the music business rather than a murderous fantasy - because it really does not need the flights of fancy (which are full of plot holes anyway - and a subplot with a bent copper is so unbelievable it should be on Star Trek - as should the dodgy porn subplot. Just not credible). But anyway...
Nicholas Hoult is, as usual, excellent - and even the ever-annoying James Cordon can't spoil this film!
The shark-infested music business is shown in all its amoral horror - as it has been many a time before in movies like 'Killing Bono' or even 'That'll be the Day'. This has a 90s twist though and in-jokes about shoe-gazing music and German techno are spot on!
Oddly, the movie is now almost nostalgic - since 1996/7 when this is set, the price of music has halved and the size of the record industry has halved too (half the staff now too). Internet downloading certainly nailed these rich kids! Power to the people now - who download for 99p an album track, so no need to buy a £10 album at all. Oh and the singles market has now utterly collapsed too.
I am not sure whether to give this 3 or 4 stars - because although enjoyable it's not all THAT great. But I shall give it 3.5 stars (the half is for being mercifully short and for some great tunes on the soundtrack) and round that up to 4 stars.
0 out of 0 members found this review helpful.
Funny and entertaining - Kill Your Friends review by cr
I was dreading watching this as it has poor reviews but I am interested in the subject matter and thought I would give it a go. Yes it is derivative and has similarities to American psycho and it don't look like its set in the 90's with the haircuts and fashion but I thought this was an amusing cynical entertaining take on the fickle music industry and kept me entertained for a couple of hours.
They say there's a lot of truth in jest and it seems so here and I liked Nicolas Hoult in the charismatic lead role. Good 90's soundtrack to. Recommended.
0 out of 0 members found this review helpful.