Review of All My Friends Hate Me (2022) by Ancientamber — 22 Jun 2022

Very fun movie. I don't think many people would hate this. It's the sort of thing I'd recommend to anyone who's stuck for something to watch.

What stops it getting a higher score is a slight lack of originality and inventiveness with the cinematography and so on. Compare it to something like Knives Out where the fun isn't only in the plot and dialogue but also the editing and camerawork and overall polish. It also lacks a little warmth and humanity, I couldn't really connect with any characters on a deep level. This could be intentional, to allow the audience to feel as disconnected as the protagonist, but I didn't especially connect with him either.

Despite this, it does succeed in making the audience feel as confused and self-doubting as the main character, and works as a kind of absurd metaphor for social anxiety. I thought the ultimate posh guy was an interesting and revealing character, he is clearly the one suffering the most, and yet our protagonist is too busy worrying about what others think of him to really notice. It made for a nice little statement on how the narcissistic element of anxiety can harm people other than the patient. I don't want to get into spoiler territory, so will only say that I wasn't completely buying the ending and hope people understand why. I did experience weapons-grade nuclear cringe though, so that was interesting.