Kill Your Friends
Well Go USA Entertainment | Release Date: April 1, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
45
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 19 Critic Reviews
Positive:
3
Mixed:
12
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
The New York TimesAndy WebsterMar 31, 2016
A richly satisfying poison-pen letter to the music industry. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterStephen DaltonOct 20, 2015
Kill Your Friends remixes a brutally funny novel into an entertaining if somewhat familiar big-screen tale of amoral, chemically-fuelled decadence. Read full review
67
ConsequenceSarah KurchakMar 29, 2016
Kill Your Friends is effective and enjoyable in the way that dusty music compilations are. Read full review
60
Time Out LondonDave CalhounMar 29, 2016
There are some genuine laughs, and the air of deep-frozen cynicism reminds you that Niven’s book was on to something behind the violence and farce. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireApr 7, 2016
It’s amusingly slick and mean for a while, but ultimately the film’s one-note nihilism grows numbing, and its stylish visuals and well-chosen soundtrack can only do so much to keep it lively. Read full review
50
New York PostKyle SmithMar 31, 2016
A comedy as black as vinyl, Kill Your Friends is a music-industry tell-all set at a decadent London record label in 1997. Read full review
50
Village VoiceMichael NordineMar 29, 2016
Steve's voiceover monologues and dealings with a detective investigating a murder are straight out of the Patrick Bateman playbook, but turning the sociopathic cynicism up to eleven tends to be ineffective unless wit and insight are included in the mix. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineChristopher GrayMar 28, 2016
Thanks to a strong performance by Nicholas Hoult, all reptilian sinew and heroin-chic vacuity, it keeps threatening to become more dynamic and self-critical than its final result. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreMar 8, 2016
This could have been a lighter picture, sort of a semi-dark Nick Hornby spin on music. That might have been less accurate, but more watchable. Read full review
50
Screen DailyFionnuala HalliganOct 20, 2015
For a film about the music business, it’s interesting that Kill Your Friends sticks so faithfully to one note throughout; it’s as if Niven fears any glimpse of humanity might risk the project’s integrity, but the lack of human empathy ultimately becomes this project’s biggest handicap. Read full review
40
The TelegraphRobbie CollinMar 29, 2016
The film’s slightly feeble and teenage ideas about what counts as transgressive quickly drain these outpourings of their capacity to shock. Read full review
40
EmpireDavid HughesNov 2, 2015
Nicholas Hoult does his best to bring Niven's weapons-grade scumbag to life, in a film hobbled by amateurish acting and absence of production value. Read full review
40
CineVueBen NicholsonOct 20, 2015
It's a rancid cocktail of misogyny, homophobia, and much more besides, that never convinces as scathing satire as much as back-slapping celebration. Read full review
40
VarietyAndrew BarkerOct 20, 2015
The film has its razor-sharp grace notes and a seductive stylishness, neither of which can override its relentlessly adolescent worldview. Read full review
40
The GuardianBenjamin LeeOct 16, 2015
The difficulty with black comedy is avoiding overkill and Kill Your Friends is a dictionary definition of the word. Read full review
38
The Seattle TimesSoren AndersenMar 31, 2016
A more disagreeable collection of cynical, backstabbing, self-aggrandizing, shallow, vicious and vile specimens of humanity gathered together in a single motion picture would be difficult to conceive of. Read full review
33
The PlaylistSam FragosoOct 16, 2015
For 100 minutes, Kill Your Friends apes a myriad of styles, trying to pass off imitation as innovation. Read full review
30
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleMar 31, 2016
The movie — glibly admiring of its hero's awfulness — is tone-deaf about genuine satire, assuming anything ugly (insults, nihilism, bloody violence) qualifies as sharp cultural commentary as long as the unceasingly venal, knowing narration explains it all for us. Read full review
25
The Film StageChristopher SchobertFeb 26, 2016
It is Nicholas Hoult, and Nicholas Hoult only, who keeps one watching. Even here he commands the screen, and shows himself able to carry a film. Next time, perhaps it will be a good one, and not one with such a needlessly tired message. Read full review
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