Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

Kill Your Friends Blu-ray Movie Review

Number 1 with a hacksaw.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 6, 2016

For a brief if not exactly shining moment in the eighties I met (or frankly introduced myself to) a whole coterie of music industry types in my quixotic quest to be filthy rich if simultaneously absolutely anonymous (already the illogic of my endeavor is probably becoming clear). Among other kind of funny developments, I was scouted by a guy supposedly from what was then Columbia Records, a so-called A&R “executive” (who was probably 25 if even that old), who was tooling around on a motorcycle and who reeked of a combination of Patchouli and weed. This guy came to a gig of mine and assured me I was the “next big thing” and then asked me if I knew where to score some cocaine (I didn't, which probably put an end to that potential signing). At virtually the same time in a kind of mad carnival of activity I also had a bunch of other frankly kind of cool bigwig types just kind of drop right into my lap, with one pretty famous producer showing up to buy a new pair of shoes at an upscale clothing store where they had hired me to play piano for the customers (this was years before Nordstrom started doing something similar). Over the course of several months of interaction, though, I began to see some kind of unseemly behaviors, well outside of the music norm of “sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll” which ultimately convinced me this was probably not a lifestyle for me. Ironically, this tendency was only reinforced a little while later when I had taken an office job managing a temporary service and another A&R guy for what was then one of the largest independent labels in the world called to order a “secretary” for a road trip he was taking through the Northwest. He was not shy at all about detailing the “duties” he wanted this woman to perform, all of which would have probably landed me in jail had I actually sent some poor, unsuspecting soul on the assignment to begin with. This is all to say that behind the so-called "glamour" of show business there are often pretty scraggly people doing some at least questionable things. Those tendencies in the music industry, at least in the United Kingdom, may have only progressed from bad to worse by the late nineties, at least if Kill Your Friends is any indication. This pitch black comedy, based on the kinda sorta fictionalized memoir of former A&R guy Scott Niven (who also penned the film version’s screenplay), features an ambitious worker in the “Artists and Repertoire” division of a huge music conglomerate called Unigram, an obvious riff on Polygram. Steven Stelfox (Nicholas Hoult) is ambitious, to say the least, but he’s perhaps hobbled by two apparently troubling tendencies: first of all, he doesn’t like most of the music he’s supposed to be promoting, and second, he has no patience with what he sees as the blathering of his co-workers. With the future of Unigram’s A&R Department up for grabs, Stelfox decides to take matters into his own hands, a decision which ultimately leads to some discomfiting developments that may remind some of American Psycho, albeit this time played for more intentional laughs.

Stelfox, who regularly breaks the fourth wall throughout this enterprise, wastes no time in establishing his fairly snarky bona fides for the audience. He’s specifically addressing exactly the sort of youth I had been back in the eighties, letting aspiring musicians know that his label gets hundreds of thousands of demos a year and that he signs maybe ten of them. “Give up now,” Stelfox seems to be saying, and none too subtly at that. Stelfox is more or less generally repulsed by several of the people with whom he works, including a kind of clueless coke consuming shlub named Waters (James Corden). Stelfox has an acolyte named Darren (Craig Roberts), a young (like teenaged) “scout” who keeps bringing back indie music to Stelfox which Stelfox unapologetically destroys (figuratively and literally).

What’s subtextually fascinating about Stelfox’s machinations is that in their own way they’re exactly as preposterous as some garage band shipping off a CD-R to some label and expecting a windfall. Stelfox is on his own quixotic quest, one that music-centric television outings like Empire: The Complete First Season and (especially) Vinyl: The Complete First Season have also explored, namely that desire to find, yep, “the next big thing”, engaging in a global musical snark hunt that seems almost certain not to pay any dividends. But in this case Stelfox’s attempts are in service of nothing other than his own advancement. And an inability to score a hit is seen as only a temporary setback to climbing up the career ladder, since Stelfox ultimately is more than happy to simply get rid of anyone on a higher rung than he currently is.

Kill Your Friends is often darkly humorous, but it has some tonal ambiguities that ultimately make it harder and harder to really like. The film’s cartoonish tendencies are on display from virtually the get go, and are actually quite enjoyable in the film’s first act, but as Stelfox devolves into the music industry’s version of Patrick Bateman, Kill Your Friends’ attempts to blend smart topical (if industry specific) comedy with a kind of Grand Guignol ambience don’t really connect. Hoult is outstanding throughout, however, generating a lot of heat if not much light as the obviously despicable Stelfox. A large supporting cast features a number of standouts, including Georgia King as an apparent blonde bombshell secretary who may be a good deal smarter than anyone thinks she is, and Ed Hogg as a cop with dreams of music superstardom that end up creating nightmares instead.

Kill Your Friends Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Kill Your Friends is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. The IMDb doesn't list a camera for this release, but a couple of results from a Google search suggests the Arri Alexa was utilized, and the sleek, smooth appearance of this outing would seem to support that thesis. Colors are quite vibrant, especially in the more brightly lit moments, but there's also some attendant murk in some of the dimly lit environments. Director Owen Harris and cinematographer Gustav Danielsson also toy with lighting and contrast, offering near blooming at times (see screenshot 14) as well as intentionally hazy sequences that seek to convey the drug fueled environment of the times (see screenshot 17). Close-ups offer excellent detail levels. The kind of slate gray and/or cool blue color grading of several sequences doesn't significantly diminish detail levels.

Kill Your Friends Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

As befits its music-centric plot, Kill Your Friends' DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 audio is filled to the brim with pulsating cues, and those easily spill through the surrounds, often creating washes of sound that convey an almost quasi-hallucinatory ambience, something that's certainly in line (and/or lines, if you catch my drift) with the film's depiction of rampant drug use. Dialogue is always cleanly and clearly presented and is generally well prioritized (a couple of noisy party and/or club scenes are just temporarily problematic in this regard). Fidelity is excellent, with some really good low end.

Kill Your Friends Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Interviews

  Nicholas Hoult, Steven (1080i; 5:12)

  James Corden, Waters (1080i; 2:30)

  Craig Roberts, Darren (1080i; 2:06)

  Owen Harris, Director (1080i; 7:20)

  John Niven, Writer (1080i; 8:52)

• Trailer (1080p; 2:03)

Kill Your Friends Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Kill Your Friends is a scathing indictment of what used to be the recording industry (is it poetic justice it all starting falling apart in the eighties and nineties?), but the film doesn't quite manage to balance its comedic and quasi-horror elements (elements which admittedly are not as overt as in American Psycho and which accrue somewhat later in the overall scheme of things). Still, performances are quite winning and for those who have peeked behind the curtain of this particular business, a lot of what is depicted will have the ring of truth. Technical merits are strong, and Kill Your Friends comes Recommended.