Review of The Riot Club (2014) by Ola G — 20 Sep 2016

Alistair Ryle (Sam Claflin) and Miles 'Milo' Richards (Max Irons), both with aristocratic connections, start their first year at Oxford University. Though they are very different - Miles is friendly and level-headed who does not care that he has a girlfriend from a lower background, Lauren (Holliday Grainger), whilst Alistair is an arrogant and cold-hearted snob with aspirations to follow his friend's uncle, a Conservative MP - the common ground is that they both become members of the Riot Club, a long established elite drinking club priding itself on hedonism and the belief that money can buy anything. The club consists of Harry Villiers (Douglas Booth), an older, charismatic student whose family is quite wealthy, though they partially maintain this by allowing tourists to view their home, something which deeply rankles Harry; Hugo Fraser-Tyrwhitt (Sam Reid), an older student whose family, though aristocratic, is not financially well-off. He attended Westminster with Miles and although they didn't socialize. Hugo is homosexual, and has a romantic interest in Miles; Dimitri Mitropolous (Ben Schnetzer), an older student of Greek heritage who seems to act as the club's primary bankroll. It is also suggested that Dimitri is nouveau riche, and James Leighton- Masters (Freddie Fox), the president of the club and criticized by the other members of the club for scaling back the club's activities in an effort to not jeopardize his future. Alistair takes the club in more of a competitive fashion and ends up hating Miles. Having been barred from most establishments in Oxford, they have their annual dinner at the function room in a country pub, where their raucous behaviour annoys other patrons though they reimburse Chris, the landlord. After hiring a prostitute who refuses to perform group oral sex, Alistair takes Miles' phone and texts Lauren without Miles knowing, whom they proposition to Miles' disgust. Getting progressively more drunk and ingesting drugs, they start to wreck the room, and when Chris comes to confront them, Alistair punches him followed by the others who viciously attack him, sending him to hospital. What follows is a blame game that will take all involved in different directions...

"The Riot Club" is inspired by the Bullingdon Club, an Oxford University dining society infamous for its destructive hedonism that boasts alumni such as David Cameron, Boris Johnson and George Osborne. The film has a base in fascistic sociopathic decadent behavior within an elite circle of extreme wealth and aristocracy. Youngsters born with a silverspoon in both their mouth and ass with a loathsome look upon life and people. What director Lone Scherfig wants to put the finger on is the blue-blooded superiority complex all the characters suffers from and the anti-social behavior it leeds to. From being posh elitist to being hateful, drug and alcohol fuelled immoral sociopaths with no respect for anything let alone themselves is genuinely disgusting and gives you a bad taste in your mouth. I reckon all the lead actors does as fine job to make you hate them, their contempt for mankind and everything they stand for. The moral layers are plenty and interesting. I like as well that Lone Scherfig didn´t go down that path you think the story would go, that Lauren or Rachel would be attacked and abused in the final sequence, but instead the pub owner Chris is the one who becomes the victim and the target for everything The Riot Club loathe. "The Riot Club" is interesting as a socialpolitical movie document and I think it carries questions and thoughts that is of importance.