[yasr_overall_rating]
An A&R man working at the height of the Britpop music craze goes to extremes in order to find his next hit.
In an era where television is driven by antihero protagonists – Walter White of “Breaking Bad” or Frank Underwood from “House of Cards” both immediately come to mind – it seems only natural that the Machiavellian alpha male would find his way to the big screen. Rather than being set in a meth lab in the American Southwest or in the universally-recognized White House, “Kill Your Friends” releases its characters into a much more niche environment: the late 1990’s British music industry.
“Kill Your Friends” pulls no punches and the title is just about an accurate description of the film as one could hope for. The antihero in question, Stephen Stelfox (Nicholas Hoult), does indeed resort to murdering some of his purported friends in his attempt to climb to the top of the booming British record business. The cast is colorful, though many of the characters come off as poorly developed caricatures, and that is ultimately what robs the film of a sense of authenticity. While it is thoroughly entertaining to watch late ’90s British music executives destroy their lives and the lives of others through a nonstop parade of greed and avarice, “Kill Your Friends” seems to have only scratched the surface in what motivates the various players at Unigram, the record label portrayed in the film.
Stephen is clearly motivated by his lust for power, and immediately betrays his psychopathic tendencies when he brutally murders a friend who received a promotion that Stephen had been coveting. Through his constant breaking of the fourth wall, we learn that the music industry is chock full of rampant drug and alcohol abuse, replete with constant fear of sudden unemployment, and filled with a pervasive sense of total amorality. Stephen embodies every single one of these traits, and the film hammers home that the music business isn’t about music: it’s about producing hits. “Kill Your Friends” traces Stephen’s unsteady path towards his ultimate goal, which is to be the head of the Artists and Repertoire (more commonly known as A&R) department.
What separates Stephen Stelfox from the aforementioned Walter White and Frank Underwood is a lack of character development beyond the superficial lust for power. Many people want power, but that alone is rarely the motivation to commit the kinds of acts fictional antiheroes often do. Walter White, for example, is first motivated by the desire to provide financial security for his family, only later finding himself unwilling to leave the meth business once he’s proven to be such an effective player in it. Frank Underwood is motivated by revenge and a fear of being ordinary. Power is certainly what those two men desire, but there are reasons for it: with Stephen, it’s never quite clear what those reasons are.
Still, “Kill Your Friends” is an enjoyable, incredibly dark comedy. Hoult does a great job of playing Stelfox, and the dark humor is not overdone, which it often can be in films such as this one. Like many of its characters, the film is flawed and imperfect, but difficult to take your eyes away from.
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