The Riot Club

It’s the first day of school in Oxford University, and two new students with two very different approaches to life – Miles (Max Irons) is a liberal lover of all, while Alistair (Sam Clafin) has a deep hatred for anyone he deems not to be his equal – cross paths and develop an instant dislike for each other. Too bad guys, because Oxford’s crème-de-la-crème secret society The Riot Club has picked them both to join their ranks amongst the ten most worthy students of the school. Over the course of one long night of debauchery as part of their initiation, these young men from privileged backgrounds will reach the basest levels of human depravity, and all simply because they can. Imagine the Winklevoss Twins, times five, all on a cocaine binge and you’re half-way there.

Based on the stage play “Posh”, director Lone Scherfig (An Education, One Day) has managed to do two things very well: (1) it no longer feels particularly theatrical, even though most of the running time takes place in one room, it evokes the likes of Reservoir Dogs and 12 Angry Men rather than simply transporting a group of actors from a theatre stage to a sound stage, and (2) managing to make a movie quite likeable when it’s cup runneth over with some of the nastiest, most vile characters you’ll probably ever encounter.

Along with Irons and Clafin, we’ve got Douglas Booth playing a pretty boy who has clearly never heard the word “No” in his life, Tom Hollander as a wise, patriarchal former head of The Riot Club, and Ben Schnetzer whose pockets are lined with more money than his brain is with common sense. Despite this boy’s club, we’ve still got a strong female contingent with Game Of Thrones’ Natalie Dormer, The Bourgais’ Holliday Granger and Downton Abbey’s Jessica Brown Findlay all representing different aspects of girl power in the face of the male entitlement.

It can at times feel a little too one-sided – rich people bad, poor people good – and the pure rage of the super-rich when faced with the working class seeps out for an inevitable but still crassly OTT conclusion. Despite that, this well-directed, fantastically-acted pitch black comedy drama dealing with class warfare and the intoxicating but contradictory wants of both money and acceptance is made to offend and get a rise out its audience. Get ready to embrace the hate.