Review: The Riot Club

When you first see the trailer for this British drama, you will naturally hate a lot of these main characters.
I did feel that. But I also saw a very interesting topic that could be broken down to make it entertaining viewing.

Seen as a fictionalised version of the famous Bullingdon Club of Oxford University which is a well known gang that is associated with grand banquets and extreme vandalism. It has been know for ex-members to eventually end up in high political posts such as George Osborne, Boris Johson and David Cameron.

After a pretty rushed introduction, we get going with a few promising start of term moments. Even with the stereotypical toff characters making me feel like rolling my eyes, the performances were keeping me interested.
From then on, it quickly turned into something quite tense, thrilling and really nasty at times.

I think it is safe to say this film will get polarizing reviews. I can see a few walk outs, mainly due to the fact that people will naturally hate the characters due to their toff characteristics.
But I think others, will find it interesting viewing with some very uncomfortable moments.

For me, I felt I was the latter. When I saw the trailer and who was part of the it, I was hoping for an interesting insight into this club and the class system etc.
The big positives I thought were the performances. Sam Claflin was the breakthrough out of everyone. Despite all these people being posh, over the course of the film you get interesting insights into some of them and his was by far the biggest.

A lot of the scenes, especially in the second half do get quite uncomfortable to watch by the end. By then, we get to really know the intentions of The Riot Club and there was one particular scene that at this moment in time could be quite controversial. The timing of its release well definitely affect its box office.

Sadly, despite it going the way I hope it would, it just did not have enough depth that I was expecting. It felt like it was a surface driven film. This is by no means a bad thing, the surface that was shown was great to watch, but this could have been one of the best British films to come out this year if it just delved a bit more deeper into the plot.
Another negative that I think a lot we get from this is that the characters will get a lot of natural hate. One great comparison will with that of The Wolf Of Wall Street. The main characters may be doing terrible things, but you just get intrigued by them. But some will just strongly dislike them due to their morals being incredibly wrong in every way.

I did end up enjoying it, but I think it could have been something quite extraordinary. The lack of depth was noticeable and that could have elevated the dark and disturbing nature of the film. However, despite having a lot of surface, it is great surface and deserves multiple viewings.
There are great performances lead by the ever impressive Sam Claflin and like many British citizens, we cannot resist watching something that is related to the gap in the class system. We always seem to be intrigued by that subject matter, which is one of many reasons why programmes such as Downton Abbey have done well.

Rating: 7/10