'KILL YOUR FRIENDS': Four and a Half Stars (Out of Five)A very dark British thriller-comedy flick; about an extremely desperate A&R man, who will do anything to find the next big hit. The movie stars Nicholas Hoult, in the lead role; and it costars James Corden, Georgia King, Dustin Demri-Burns, Craig Roberts, Tom Riley, Joseph Mawle, Jim Piddock and Ed Skrein. It was directed by first time feature filmmaker Owen Harris, and it was written by John Niven. The film was based on Niven's 2008 novel (of the same name). It's the type of movie that left me feeling completely disgusted, when it was over (by nearly everything I just witnessed in the film), and I respect it for that. The story takes place in 1997 London; when British pop music was at it's popularity peak. The film cleverly illustrates how no one in the industry really knew what they were doing; but instead everything was left up to the ever-changing taste of the consumer. Hoult plays Steven Stelfox; a 27-year-old A&R man, who's desperately trying to make it big in his business. So desperate, he might even kill!The movie is really dark, and sometimes hard to watch. It's hard to watch, and yet I couldn't look away! I was planning to turn the movie off, halfway through (to get some sleep), but I couldn't rest until it was over. To me, that's a really good movie. I hated everything I was seeing, and despised all of the characters in it, but it was still really involving and fascinating. It's also funny, very darkly funny, but above all it's memorable. Hoult is great in the lead (it's his best performance to date) and I think Harris is a filmmaker to watch for.Watch our movie review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: https://youtu.be/8E1WKbyL3YM

Pretty slick dark comedy a bit similar to American Psycho but set in the British music-scene circa 1997 about a A&R man who'll do anything to get a new hit.Nicholas Hoult does really well in the lead I thought, doing something really different to anything I've seen him in before which mostly have been American films.It doesn't have any likable characters but it doesn't really need to, that's not really what this movie is about after all it's a (extreme) satire on the music-business and if you are aware of the 90's music-scene you can easily tell some groups that are being poked fun of, but mostly it's about the people behind the scenes.I can't really say too much more about it than that as I might end up spoiling something, but yeah it's a pretty cool flick, fairly fast paced and with a rocking 90's soundtrack to match.

If you liked the book, then you should enjoy the movie just fine. The issue is the book is not something easily adaptable to become a movie that you could enjoy even if you never read the book and liked it. Some more tweaking could've made this movie a lot more enjoyable to the general audience instead of just taking out the more offensive lines. At the end of the movie you learned and felt nothing. Just an hour and a half to waste time. Steven Stelfox gives you no reason to understand why he would have friends in the first place. You literally know nothing about Steven beyond his cynical internal monologue about the world. Obviously he's not a likable guy, and he's even more charmless in the book, but it doesn't translate well on screen. That was the biggest issue.I think all of the actors did a good job, and Nicholas Hoult did a good job of portraying Steven even though I think he was still looking way too young to be that cynical about life. Other than that, I don't think this book should have been a movie, some things are just better off being left as books.

Kill Your Friends (2015) is an outstanding film based on the happenings with the music industry as an a&r rep. This film is beautifully packed with the perfect cast, the perfect script; this film is on point from start to finish. The moment I heard about Kill Your Friends (2015), I knew I had to see it that it was a film that had my attention and it did. As the movie started up it had that "Trainspotting" vibe to it, the chaos factor, the thrill ride; everything was intact. The way the story cycled through as it pulls you closer to the edge preparing to unwind; this film is perfect in all ways.This is a great film for indie musicians to watch, and of course fans of music in general; this movie does point out some true tips. This is certainly a film that will be in our personal DVD collection.