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Don't Believe the Hype

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

'The Riot Club' is a thrilling 2014 British drama film, revolving around a small group of born with a silver spoon in their mouths students of the University of Oxford. These people are secretive, but renowned in a narrow circle of other British aristocrats for drunken mischief making. As they exercise their privileges, talk down to everybody and behave ruthlessly, the viewer may actually find it rather disturbing and unpleasant. Albeit the so-called Riot Club is in the center of the story, most of the screen time is dedicated to Sam Claflin (Alistair) and Max Irons (Miles). The former, not being a shrinking violet, is a hypocritical but clever first-year student, who rejoices in ranting and getting on his high horse. The latter is a rather mellow fellow, who gets roped into seemingly unlimited shady world of binges. Credit where credit's due - both actors performed outstandingly, yet from the very beginning of the film the viewer can witness some plot holes in character development. For instance, at first Milo is presented as a shrewd and intelligent person. However, in 10 minutes he completely turnes around and becomes level-headed. The opposite goes for Alistair. As for the plot, it is a spate of squandering, swearing, drinking and somewhere going too far. The bottom line in all that reckless farce is a banquet of a rural pub, where all hell breaks loose when Alistair takes on the initiative and starts destroying the bar. Undoubtedly, the introduced characters are bad-eggs, but that moment really flies in the face of common sense. Thus, on one hand it is a riveting story of spoiled young people, but on the other hand it is a twisted series of constant smutty jokes and obnoxious behavior that makes one stop watching and forget about the film as a horrid dream.

The Riot Club is an exclusive hedonistic drinking club in Oxford University with a long tradition. The group needs two new members to complete the ten minimum. Alistair Ryle and Miles Richards are new students with connections. Miles starts a relationship with Lauren from the working class. Right winger Alistair gets mugged and then recruited into the group. Harry Villiers is an older member whose ancestor was the original Lord Riot. James Leighton-Masters is the group's president. Hugo Fraser-Tyrwhitt is Miles' former classmate. They weren't close but Hugo remembers Miles. Their annual dinner at a country restaurant causes mounting rowdiness and chaos.These are entitled rich brats. None of them are that compelling as individual characters. Most of them are too interchangeable. Their hi-jinx are annoying and not particularly imaginative. It's a lot of drinking and destruction. Throwing in Natalie Dormer as a hooker does help. There is boring boorish talk and a couple of interesting moments. The scene with Lauren in the restaurant is wrong. It's excusable that Miles is drunk but Lauren is too slow on the uptick. Even then, Miles can't be that weak-minded. It makes no sense that he doesn't leave to chase after Lauren other than for the sake of the story. There are a few clunky moments. It's unbelievable that the guys don't do more than a night in the drunk tank. They walk out with their clothes which should be taken as evidence. The only way to make it all work is if the cops are bought off right away. The possibility is there but it's not sharp enough.

These guys are amazing, they are all so good at portraying their characters. I have been watching some of their interviews regarding to this film and they kept on receiving the question "what's the moral lesson of this film" and they all started pointing at each other to who will answer it. I think the moral lesson is that no matter how successful and not so successful you are in life everyone deserves to be respected, don't look at yourself so highly like you are better than anyone else. I kinda hate the fact that they were messing Mugger's restaurant -the one that he was relying on for a living and I was about to cry when he accepted the money Alistair (Sam Claflin) was offering him just so he won't bother kicking them out of his place. I recommend this film not only because it has a good story plot but because the members of the club are all hot and babes.

To me, this movie is entertaining with great storyline and acting. That's why I gave a 9 for it. However, I kind of understand why this movie doesn't get very good reviews. Because It was portraying a group of young, rich and stupid people who were behaving so arrogantly and most general (middle class) people who watch it would feel strongly disapproved and, as a consequence dislike this movie. I think it is quite difficult to differentiate the opinion regarding one issue with the movie itself. Even though I also feel disapproved and dislike their behaviors, I can see that this movie is trying to communicate something. I believe they try to show the hideous aspect of UK's elite system that has long been an important part of British society and it has carried on till the modern time. Many people admire and look at the UK as equivalent of being posh and sophisticated especially in those prestigious universities. But in fact, they are likely to do more harm than good. The movie really shows how rich kids and even elite adults can be out of touch with the world and think of themselves as superior than the rest, which I believe there are still many like that in the UK. It gets me thinking that it is probably the culprit that drags the UK behind other countries. The UK is now behind the war-defeated country like Germany and the country of similar size and characteristics such as France, even though it got so many advantages such as speaking the world language, once the most powerful country with so many colony and all. I believe the main difference between France, Germany and UK is that the UK elite system, including the monarch, is so strong and overly important. As an outsider it looks interesting and cool but I wouldn't want the same for my country. I think it is kind of bad for the country in a sense that many resources could have been pulled away for more practical purposes and wasted on the flamboyant parties, fancy clothes and palaces.