the party movie review guardian

an image, when javascript is unavailable

The Definitive Voice of Entertainment News

Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter

site categories

‘the party’: film review | berlin 2017.

Patricia Clarkson, Cillian Murphy, Timothy Spall and Kristin Scott Thomas get more than their just deserts in British director Sally Potter's dark comedy of manners, which is competing for big prizes in Berlin.

By Stephen Dalton

Stephen Dalton

Share on Facebook
Share to Flipboard
Send an Email
Show additional share options
Share on LinkedIn
Share on Pinterest
Share on Reddit
Share on Tumblr
Share on Whats App
Print the Article
Post a Comment

A gathering of old friends fasten their seatbelts for a bumpy night of explosive revelations in The Party , a Berlin competition contender from veteran British writer-director Sally Potter. Boasting a stellar international ensemble cast including Patricia Clarkson , Cillian Murphy, Kristin Scott Thomas and Timothy Spall , Potter’s talk-heavy chamber farce was filmed on a West London studio set in just two weeks, which may help explain its adrenalized energy and lean running time.

Attractively shot in timeless monochrome, The Party is indebted to a long tradition of dinner-party-from-hell classics including Mike Nichols’ Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? , Luis Bunuel’s The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie and Thomas Vinterberg’s Festen . Alas, Potter never musters the same taboo-trashing satirical bite as these cinematic landmarks. Despite touching on some edgy themes, The Party is ultimately a conventional comedy of social manners. How very British.

Which may sound like damning Potter with faint praise, but not so. The Party might lack the striking originality of her more formally experimental work, like Orlando or The Tango Lesson , but it puts a contemporary spin on a reliably popular genre, and is arguably the most effortlessly fun film of her career. The starry cast and witty script should boost theatrical potential outside the festival circuit, and could even score Potter a rare commercial hit.

'Soul': Film Review | Berlin 2017

These chamber-farce conventions occasionally creak a little. It stretches credibility that any of these ill-matched couples would end up together in real life, and it is an even more absurd contrivance that none have shared their secrets before this fateful night. Most of the protagonists are brittle caricatures, while some of the performances shade into the sort of over-emphatic mugging that might work onstage but looks hammy in big-screen close-up.

Even so, The Party is full of cheeky narrative twists and delightful surface details. Alexey Rodionov’s sumptuous black-and-white photography reinforces the sense of classic ingredients repackaged in a contemporary context. Likewise the sublime musical backdrop of antique jazz, blues and reggae from the likes of Bo Diddley , John Coltrane and Albert Ayler .

Crucially, Potter keeps the energy fizzing and the jokes crackling throughout the drama’s short span, which unfolds in something like real time. Clarkson gets most of the sharpest lines, and delivers them with deadpan relish. “Tickle an aromatherapist and you find a Nazi,” she scoffs at Gottfried . “You’re a first-class lesbian and a second-rate thinker,” she tells Martha. More of this Bette Davis-level acidity would have been welcome in a charming little tragicomedy which flirts with savage social satire but never fully embraces it.

Production companies: Great Point Media, Adventure Pictures Cast: Patricia Clarkson, June Cherry, Bruno Ganz, Emily Mortimer, Cillian Murphy, Kristin Scott Thomas, Timothy Spall Director-screenwriter: Sally Potter Producers: Christopher Sheppard, Kurban Kassam Cinematographer: Alexey Rodionov Editors : Anders Refn , Emilie Orsini Production designer: Carlos Conti Venue: Berlin International Film Festival (Competition) Sales: ICM Partners (North Amertica ), Great Point Media (world)

No rating, 71 minutes

THR Newsletters

More from The Hollywood Reporter

‘deadpool & wolverine’ box office: all the records broken (so far), box office: ‘deadpool & wolverine’ zooms to $97m record-making second weekend, hits $824m globally, chris evans on why he declined ryan reynolds’ cue cards for his surprise monologue in ‘deadpool & wolverine’, oscars: inside the search for a host, leonard engelman, makeup artist on ‘rocky iv,’ ‘moonstruck’ and much more, dies at 83, hugh jackman details reuniting with ke huy quan 24 years after working together on ‘x-men’.

Skip to main content
Keyboard shortcuts for audio player

Movie Reviews

In 'the party,' the bourgeois get petty.

Ella Taylor

Patricia Clarkson and Kristin Scott Thomas star in The Party, a dark comedy about a get-together that goes just a little bit off the rails. Roadside Attractions hide caption

Patricia Clarkson and Kristin Scott Thomas star in The Party, a dark comedy about a get-together that goes just a little bit off the rails.

British filmmaker Sally Potter, a bold adventurer with form and genre, has racked up a formidable resume of hits and some misses, among them the gorgeous historical gender-bender Orlando (1992); the sexy dance movie The Tango Lesson (1996); The Man Who Cried (2001), a tone-deaf Holocaust misfire; and the terrific Ginger and Rosa (2012), which explored the tricky friction between ideology and private behavior on the lefty margins of 1960's London, where Potter came of age.

Potter's latest, basically a filmed play confined to a trendy London town house and tastefully shot in black-and-white, mines similar territory to that of Ginger and Rosa , only with a more arid, less forgiving spirit. A contemporary farce with aspirations to satire and an awkward dab of tragedy, The Party clocks in at a mercifully trim 71-minutes, which is more than enough time to fire volleys of flat-footed cheap shots across the bows of a group of chattering-class friends who gather in a trendy London townhouse to celebrate the promotion of their hostess.

Janet (a very good Kristin Scott Thomas) has just been named Shadow Minister for Health, a key opposition post under a Tory government bent on cutting an already strapped National Health Service to the bone. Public wellness, however, is the last thing on her mind as she fields phoned-in congrats with ostentatious false modesty while murmuring can't-talk-now to a mystery lover on the other line. Between the lines Janet offers sporadic attention to her arriving inner circle, played by a distinguished ensemble with panache and waggery to burn, were there more wit in Potter's script to set satire aflame.

The party is pooped early on when Janet's husband Bill (Timothy Spall), a morose academic of modest output, stages a couple of stealth announcements of his own, setting off a round robin of revealed secrets, lies, and long-suppressed rage that ricochet around the strategically claustrophobic space, bringing the group closer in ways they'd rather avoid. Janet's best friend April (Patricia Clarkson) sprays periodic contempt on her partner Gottfried, a New Age life coach and equal-opportunity pacifier played, in a strange flourish of counter-casting, by Bruno Ganz, better known as Adolf Hitler in the 2004 German film Downfall . Rounding out this sorry crew are Martha (Cherry Jones) and her much younger lesbian lover, Jinny (Emily Mortimer), who is carrying the couple's presumably engineered triplets, and Tom (Cillian Murphy), a banker who appears to have been dressed by Tom Ford but who otherwise strains to keep his cool, which has something to do with the fact that his wife, also a Friend of Janet, is conspicuous by her absence.

Notwithstanding the acoustic version of Blake's "Jerusalem" in the opening scenes, it's hard to know what interests Potter here. The Party is set sometime in the post-Brexit present, but Potter brushes past the political to land on the gap between public face and private behavior that is the meat and potatoes of domestic satire. Just about everyone here is busily betraying a friend or partner with someone present. The hypocrisy puts us squarely in Bunuel territory, the domestic fury in Albee country. Potter's strength has always lain more with elegant form than substance; with the exception of Ginger and Rosa , whose characters had the ring of authenticity drawn from her own experience, she's less comfortable with realism.

Stranded somewhere between social types and real people we're supposed to empathize with, Janet and her bickering guests come across as cartoon bourgeois, thinly-drawn and wooden in their line delivery like dummies of a ventriloquist bent on caricaturing a privileged elite whose private messes give the lie to their brave talk of dedication to the masses. Is the message here that given half a chance, everyone's a jerk? A tacked-on moment of genuine tragedy, followed by more knockabout farce, only jars. Will the gun, pointed pointedly at the camera in the opening scene, go off in the third act? By then I was so busy cooking up Hitler memes to overlay Ganz's smiling bromides, I barely noticed the twist ending.

Correction Feb. 16, 2018

An earlier version of this story spelled Adolf Hitler's first name as Adolph.

Things you buy through our links may earn Vox Media a commission.

The Party Puts Its Politics Front and Center

Ever unpredictable, the writer-director Sally Potter returns with a brief (barely over an hour, sans credits) and darkly amusing specimen of the dinner-party-from-hell subgenre, aptly named The Party. Politics is at the heart of the dinner’s disintegration, but there are no easy targets here — no smug reactionaries, bigots, or rapacious capitalists. Potter’s seven characters are largely progressive and forward-thinking. Even the cynics have their hearts in the right place. It’s easier to respect a filmmaker’s sense of hopelessness when it’s mixed with this much affection.

Sad to say, the party is meant as a victory celebration, because Janet (Kristin Scott Thomas) has just been appointed the U.K. minister of health. But her old comrade April (Patricia Clarkson) has lost her faith in parliamentary procedure. While in the living room, Janet’s husband, Bill (Timothy Spall), gets increasingly stewed on red wine, barely registering the New Age platitudes of April’s soon-to-be-ex-boyfriend, Gottfried (Bruno Ganz), the women in the kitchen argue over the possibility of accomplishing anything meaningful in such a defensively centrist climate. It should be said that April is a pill but that Janet isn’t exactly a font of idealism. She looks distracted — perhaps because her illicit lover keeps texting her.

We’ve barely met these people — or the lesbian couple Martha (Cherry Jones) and Jinny (Emily Mortimer) or Tom (Cillian Murphy), the banker husband of a dear but hitherto absent friend — before there’s a tide of ghastly revelations (infidelity, terminal illness) and their attendant homicidal rage. The dialogue is rather broad, but Brits are good at playing high-speed craziness absolutely straight, and the Yank Cherry Jones has the theatrical chops to keep up — while also bringing a touch of warmth. Clarkson is the odd duck, slipping into camp à la the late Elaine Stritch, but what a deep, purring voice for slinging insults.

Potter and her cinematographer, Alexey Rodionov, have taken pains to prove that though a given space might be finite, it is infinitely subdividable. The Party is breathlessly well shot — and, even better, in lustrous black and white. The look conveys an unspoken message: Even playing fools, these actors are pure class.

*This article appears in the February 19, 2018, issue of New York Magazine.

movie review
sally potter
patricia clarkson
kristin scott thomas
cherry jones
emily mortimer
cillian murphy
new york magazine

Editor’s Picks

Most Popular

What is your email.

This email will be used to sign into all New York sites. By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy and to receive email correspondence from us.

Sign In To Continue Reading

Create your free account.

Password must be at least 8 characters and contain:

Lower case letters (a-z)
Upper case letters (A-Z)
Numbers (0-9)
Special Characters (!@#$%^&*)

As part of your account, you’ll receive occasional updates and offers from New York , which you can opt out of anytime.

Election 2024
Entertainment
Newsletters
Photography
AP Buyline Personal Finance
AP Buyline Shopping
Press Releases
Israel-Hamas War
Russia-Ukraine War
Global elections
Asia Pacific
Latin America
Middle East
Delegate Tracker
AP & Elections
2024 Paris Olympic Games
Auto Racing
Movie reviews
Book reviews
Financial Markets
Business Highlights
Financial wellness
Artificial Intelligence
Social Media

Paris’ Olympics opening was wacky and wonderful — and upset bishops. Here’s why

Paris Olympics organizers apologized to anyone who was offended by a tableau that evoked Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” during the glamorous opening ceremony, but defended the concept behind it Sunday. Da Vinci’s painting depicts the moment when Jesus Christ declared that an apostle would betray him. The scene during Friday’s ceremony featured DJ and producer Barbara Butch — an LGBTQ+ icon — flanked by drag artists and dancers.

Delegations arrive at the Trocadero as spectators watch French singer Philippe Katerine performing on a giant screen, in Paris, during the opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics, Friday, July 26, 2024 in Paris. (Ludovic Marin/Pool Photo via AP)

Copy Link copied

Paris Olympics

Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting clinches her first medal a day after fellow female boxer Imane Khelif of Algeria secured a victory amid an outcry fueled by gender misconceptions.
Jamaican sprinter Shericka Jackson pulls out of the women’s 200 meters and will not race for an individual medal at the Paris Games.
Meanwhile, this millennia-old port city is hosting Olympic sailing.
See AP’s top photos from the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Check out the Olympic schedule of events and follow all of AP’s coverage of the Summer Games .
Take a look at the AP’s Olympics medal tracker and list of athletes who won today .
Want more? Sign up for our daily Postcards from Paris newsletter.
What’s the deal with the Olympics? Your burning questions, answered .

PARIS (AP) — Paris: the Olympic gold medalist of naughtiness.

Revolution ran like a high-voltage wire through the wacky, wonderful and rule-breaking Olympic opening ceremony that the French capital used to astound, bemuse and, at times, poke a finger in the eye of global audiences on Friday night.

That Paris put on the most flamboyant, diversity-celebrating, LGBTQ+-visible of opening ceremonies wasn’t a surprise. Anything less would have seemed a betrayal of the pride the French capital takes in being a home to humanity in all its richness.

But still. Wow. Paris didn’t just push the envelope. It did away with it entirely as it hammered home a message that freedom must know no bounds.

A practically naked singer painted blue made thinly veiled references to his body parts. Blonde-bearded drag queen Piche crawled on all fours to the thumping beat of “Freed From Desire” by singer-songwriter Gala, who has long been a potent voice against homophobia . There were the beginnings of a menage à trois — the door was slammed on the camera before things got really steamy — and the tail end of an intimate embrace between two men who danced away, hugging and holding hands.

“In France, we have the right to love each other, as we want and with who we want. In France, we have the right to believe or to not believe. In France, we have a lot of rights. Voila,” said the audacious show’s artistic director, Thomas Jolly.

Jolly, who is gay, says being bullied as a child for supposedly being effeminate drove home early on how unjust discrimination is.

The amorous vibe and impudence were too much for some.

“Know that it is not France that is speaking but a left-wing minority ready for any provocation,” posted far-right French politician Marion Maréchal, adding a hashtagged “notinmyname.”

Here’s a closer look at how Paris both awed and shocked.

A 21st-century update of Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘Last Supper’

DJ and producer Barbara Butch, an LGBTQ+ icon who calls herself a “love activist,” wore a silver headdress that looked like a halo as she got a party going on a footbridge across the Seine, above parading athletes — including those from countries that criminalize LGBTQ+ people. Drag artists, dancers and others flanked Butch on both sides.

The tableau brought to mind Leonardo da Vinci’s “Last Supper,” which depicts the moment when Jesus Christ declared that an apostle would betray him.

Jolly says that wasn’t his intention. He saw the moment as a celebration of diversity, and the table on which Butch spun her tunes as a tribute to feasting and French gastronomy.

“My wish isn’t to be subversive, nor to mock or to shock,” Jolly said. “Most of all, I wanted to send a message of love, a message of inclusion and not at all to divide.”

Still, critics couldn’t unsee what they saw.

“One of the main performances of the Olympics was an LGBT mockery of a sacred Christian story - the Last Supper - the last supper of Christ. The apostles were portrayed by transvestites,” the spokesperson for Russia’s Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, posted on Telegram.

“Apparently, in Paris they decided that since the Olympic rings are multi-colored, they can turn everything into one big gay parade,” she added.

The French Catholic Church’s conference of bishops deplored what it described as “scenes of derision and mockery of Christianity” and said “our thoughts are with all the Christians from all continents who were hurt by the outrage and provocation of certain scenes.”

LGBTQ+ athletes, though, seemed to have a whale of a time. British diver Tom Daley posted a photo of himself recreating the standout Kate Winslet-Leonardo DiCaprio scene from “Titanic,” only with the roles reversed: He was at the boat’s prow with arms outstretched, as rower Helen Glover held him from behind.

Is that a revolver in your pocket?

When a giant silver dome lifted to reveal singer Philippe Katerine reclining on a crown of fruit and flowers, practically naked and painted blue, audiences who didn’t think he was Papa Smurf may have guessed that he represented Dionysus, the Greek god of wine and ecstasy.

But unless they speak French, they may not have caught the cheekiness of his lyrics.

“Where to hide a revolver when you’re completely naked?” he sang, pointing down to his groin. “I know where you’re thinking. But that’s not a good idea.”

“No more rich and poor when you go back to being naked. Yes,” Katerine continued.

Decades after Brigitte Bardot sang “Naked in the Sun,” this was Paris’ reminder that everyone starts life in their birthday suit, so where’s the shame?

Paris museums are full of paintings that celebrate the human form. Gustave Courbet’s “Origin of the World” hangs in the Musée d’Orsay. The 16th-century “Gabrielle d’Estrées and one of her sisters,” showing one bare-breasted woman pinching the nipple of another, hangs in the Louvre.

France sends a message

Clad in a golden costume, French-Malian pop star Aya Nakamura strode confidently out of the hallowed doors of the Institut de France, a prestigious stronghold of French language, culture and commitment to freedom of thought. Even without a note being sung, the message of diversity, inclusion and Black pride was loud.

The most listened-to French-speaking artist in the world was a target of fierce attacks from extreme-right activists when her name emerged earlier this year as a possible performer at the show. Paris prosecutors opened an investigation of alleged racism targeting the singer.

Nakamura performed with musicians of the French military’s Republican Guard, who danced around her.

Au revoir, closed minds and stuffy traditions.

Off with their head!

When London hosted the Summer Games in 2012, it paid homage to the British monarchy by giving Queen Elizabeth II a starring role in the opening ceremony. Actor Daniel Craig, in character as James Bond, was shown visiting the head of state at Buckingham Palace before the pair appeared to parachute out of a helicopter over the stadium.

The French love to joyfully tease their neighbors across the English Channel and, perhaps not incidentally, took a totally different, utterly irreverent tack.

A freshly guillotined Marie Antoinette, France’s last queen before the French Revolution of 1789, was shown clutching her severed head, singing: “The aristocrats, we’ll hang them.” Then, heavy metal band Gojira tore the Paris evening with screeching electric guitar.

Freedom: Does anyone do it better than the French?

AP journalists Sylvie Corbet in Paris and Jim Heintz in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed.

For more coverage of the Paris Olympics, visit https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games .

Movie Review: ‘The Party’

A dark, caustically comedic film that breathes new life into the classic dinner party pressure cooker trope, “The Party” is a satirical, witty airing of dirty laundry. The newest release by experimental filmmaker Sally Potter, “The Party” peels back the layers of middle-class elitism to reveal its hidden acidity.

The film is set at the London soiree of Janet, played by Kristin Scott Thomas, who is celebrating her recent political ascension to the post of shadow minister of health. As her guests filter in, secrets trickle out. A lighthearted celebration devolves into a storm of revealed information and a boiling over of suppressed emotion.

At the center of “The Party” is its sharp, witty cast. Janet’s husband Bill, played by Timothy Spall, was once a revered academic but is now merely a husk, seemingly drained of life blood after years of self-sacrifice for the sake of his wife’s success. For much of the film he sits silently in his armchair, sipping wine, staring into the air in front of him or delivering gut-punches like, “I’m Bill, I think, or at least I used to be.”

Although Bill initially seems more an accessory than an affecting character, he begins to speak up as the film proceeds, and it becomes clear his reserve was more akin to that of a grenade just before exploding.

Janet’s American best friend April, played by Patricia Clarkson, presents a loud contrast to Bill’s pained silence. April delivers some of the most biting, hilarious lines in the film. By the time she arrives at the party with her boyfriend Gottfried, played by Bruno Ganz, in tow, she already has the material she needs to make viewers guffaw. Whenever Gottfried, a spiritually inclined life coach, offers advice, April is quick to deliver a withering rebuke: “Shut up, Gottfried, your cliches are unbearable.”

As the first few minutes of “The Party” unfold, it seems evident things are bound to go wrong. As Janet makes hushed phone calls to a secret lover from the kitchen, Bill broods in the living room and the front door opens to allow the arrival of the final guests.

Soon the celebration is joined by Tom, played by Cillian Murphy, a financier who spends much of his time in the bathroom snorting lines of coke and debating if and when he should use the gun he has hidden in his jacket. He continuously assures the other guests that his wife will arrive soon, but seems to be unraveling, giving himself pep talks in the mirror during each escape to the bathroom.

The final additions to the motley group are Martha, played by Cherry Jones, and Jinny, played by Emily Mortimer, a couple who has just learned they are expecting triplets, news that pales in comparison to the rest of the evening. As April so delicately puts it, “Babies get born every day in extremely large numbers to the point of endangering the planet and all our futures. It’s not every day, however, that one of us becomes a minister.”

As wine is poured and small disasters brew in the congested home filled with large personalities, the film delves into its sharp, amusing back and forth. Although the conversation is somewhat aimless, oscillating between politics and more personal candor, its humor is biting and allows for amusing frictional character juxtapositions and zingers such as April’s assessment of Martha, “You’re a first-rate lesbian, but a second-rate thinker.”

As Janet prepares dinner and the guests mingle and wrestle with their personal crises, the film’s nature as a satire of love and politics is made clear. The film is shot in black and white, so the dialogue takes center stage and tension is an almost palpable presence. And always, April brings humor: During a moment of crisis when asked if she knew of a secret, she retorts, “I was too preoccupied with Gottfried’s screaming, obvious faults to be preoccupied with this drama.”

As with any disaster-ridden satirical film, “The Party” has all the ingredients for calamity: a gun, cocaine, slapping, destruction of property and, of course, infidelity. Some guests arrived in teams, but as the film progresses, alliances dissolve and it becomes every man for himself. It did, at times, feel as though too much was being fit into one evening, but the performance of the cast and the smart delivery allowed the film to explore disaster without becoming a confusing catastrophe.

Another gem from an underappreciated and refreshingly daring filmmaker, “The Party” is sure to elicit both laughter and raised eyebrows in its 71-minute run time. Clarkson’s withering remarks may have made her compelling on screen, but it seems that Potter is truly the one to watch.

alexandra brunjes
film review
guide review
movie review
satirical film

Your donation will support the student journalists of Georgetown University. Your contribution will allow us to purchase equipment and cover our annual website hosting costs.

Comments (0)

Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Trap 2024 Movie Reviews: Critics Share Strong First Reactions

Josh Hartnett as the Butcher in Trap movie

Anticipation grows as the first reviews for M. Night Shyamalan's Trap generate hype for its upcoming release in August.

Trap is a 2024 psychological thriller highlighting a serial killer named Cooper, "The Butcher" who goes to a Lady Raven concert with his teenage daughter. He later realizes that the concert is a trap set by law enforcement to try to catch him.

The movie stars Josh Hartnett and Ariel Donoghue It is set to premiere in theaters onAugust 2.

First Reviews for Trap Movie Shared Online

Following an early screening of Trap , critics shared their first reviews and reactions of the new M. Night Shyamalan movie.

Overall reviews are largely positive, with most praising Josh Hartnett's performance, Shyamalan's direction, and the ominous vibe of the film.

Physical Media calls Trap an "absolute banger" while commending Shyamalan and Hartnett:

"I’m happy to report that 'Trap' is an absolute banger. Old M. Night Shyamalan is back with this one. Josh Hartnett killed it and I’m here for his comeback."

Screen Rant's Joseph Deckelmeier praised Shyamalan's "masterclass in building suspense" for the movie, describing Hartnett's performance as "captivating" and "absolutely brilliant:"

"M. Night Shyamalan gives a masterclass in building suspense for 'Trap.' Josh Hartnett is captivating and brings so much humanity to a dark character. He’s absolutely brilliant in this film."

Deckelmier also singled out Saleka Shyamalan in the movie, noting that "she is a true triple threat in Trap :"

"I was blown away by Saleka Shyamalan! She is a true triple threat in 'Trap.' The way that the energy of the music went hand in hand with tension that was building is genius!"

Reece (aka @guywithamoviecamera on TikTok) had a short yet impactful review for Trap , calling the film as M. Night Shyamalan's "best since The Village :"

"M. Night is back baby. 'Trap' rocks. His best since 'The Village.'"

Chris Gallardo of The Hollywood Handle went all-out in his praise for Trap , describing the movie as "a fun thriller that's a return to form for M. Night Shyamalan:"

"'Trap' was a fun thriller that's a return to form for M. Night Shyamalan! Blending the tones of the Halloween movies and the Hitman games, 'Trap' intricately blends these elements to create that ominous atmosphere."

Gallardo complimented Hartnett's facial expressions and dual personality as Cooper and Butcher, noting that the actor unleashed "his inner Michael Myers and Agent 47:"

"Josh Hartnett truly stands out here. His facial expressions were ON POINT when balancing Cooper the Butcher's fake and real personalities. He managed to channel his inner Michael Myers and Agent 47 all at once, adding to that creep factor."

Gallardo also pointed out that Trap "stands high alongside Shyamalan's other works like Split and Knock at the Cabin :"

"Plus, Saleka's songs are some fun bops! While the dialog may feel odd and the editing confusing at times, 'Trap' stands high alongside Shyamalan's other works like 'Split' and 'Knock at the Cabin.'"

Will Trap Be Another Box Office Triumph?

The 2024 movie lineup has been showcasing banger after banger in recent months, most notably with hits coming left and right such as Inside Out 2 (which just became the highest-grossing animated movie in history) and Deadpool & Wolverine 's smashing box office debut for an R-Rated project (per Deadline ).

The strong critic reviews for Trap are a good indication that it will attract audiences wanting to see something new and thrilling next month.

Still, Trap is going up against some heavy competition in August, with the likes of Zachary Levi's Harold and the Purple Crayon (August 2) and Alien: Romulus (August 16) looking to outperform their box office projections.

This is on top of Deadpool & Wolverine 's expected dominance at the weekly box office.

M. Night Shyamalan is no stranger to success since his movies already amassed more than $3.3 billion at the worldwide box office, and it's safe to assume that Trap will continue his momentum in ticket sales.

Josh Hartnett is coming off a scintillating performance in Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer where he and the rest of the cast won Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture in 2023's Screen Actors Guild Award.

Based on the reactions, Hartnett's brilliant acting chops seem to be the anchor of the movie, and he may have once again delivered another remarkable outing.

Trap premieres in theaters on Friday, August 2.

LATEST NEWS

The Lincoln Lawyer Season 3 Gets Exciting Release Announcement

Entertainment
Dining + Bars
Celebrities

Review: 'Kneecap' is an Irish hip-hop tale with an edge

Story of cultural identity, language and rap playfully blends truth and fiction..

A fiery celebration of hip-hop and native language as nothing less than expressions of hard-fought freedom, "Kneecap" is like an Irish "8 Mile."

Kneecap is a real rap group in Northern Ireland, and "Kneecap" is their partially true, partially fictionalized origin story. The group members — Liam Óg Ó Hannaidh (Mo Chara), Naoise Ó Cairealláin (Móglaí Bap), and JJ Ó Dochartaigh (DJ Provaí) — play themselves, while Michael Fassbender hangs around the periphery of the film as Naoise's father, who in an effort to evade arrest faked his own death years ago.

Take those elements with a grain of salt, and the truth is "Kneecap" doesn't need them, but Fassbender's presence certainly spices up the movie. Consider his involvement the star guest feature that helps open up the group to more potential listeners.

"Kneecap" is set in Northern Ireland, and an early montage of car bombings pokes fun at what the area is primarily known for by the outside world. This is handled in a very " we can laugh at ourselves, but you can't laugh at us " kind of way, and writer-director Rich Peppiatt uses the story's hyper-specificity to tell the tale to insiders, from their own home turf. Few concessions are made to outsiders.

But that clear-cut viewpoint is what gives the story its edge, and Peppiatt's hyper-kinetic style recalls Danny Boyle in his "Trainspotting" days. The film's druggy sequences, of which there are no shortage, have a '90s feel to them, especially one montage set to a Prodigy song.

Kneecap raps in Irish Gaelic, and much of the movie's drama comes from efforts to ban the language, effectively throwing dirt on the region's cultural identity. So the group's lyrics and performances become a form of defiance, which builds them a following and rankles government officials, which gets people rallying both behind and against them and makes for all sorts of good old-fashioned movie drama.

Liberally blending real life and fiction, "Kneecap" wears its influences on its sleeve, and even has a little bit of "School of Rock"-style " let's put on a show! " energy. But it's the story's gritty details that give it its punch, and it can feel like bellying up to the bar at an Irish pub and eavesdropping on a private conversation. In that regard, "Kneecap" bleeds authenticity.

[email protected]

Rated R: for pervasive drug content and language, sexual content/nudity and some violence

Running time: 105 minutes

In theaters

The Spinoff

Pop Culture October 25, 2023

Review: after the party is queasy, morally complex and nz’s best tv drama in years.

A career peak for Robyn Malcolm arrives in a brave and original drama that will deservedly screen around the world.

A version of this review ran in The Spinoff’s weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here .

It’s not true that there is a house style to New Zealand television drama, but there are some threads that show up quite often. There’s the fusion of high stakes with comic elements, well-executed in previous Robyn Malcolm projects like Outrageous Fortune and Far North from earlier this year. This is likely both a natural outflow of the material and an attempt at going broad, understandable in a small market like ours. Less forgivable is a tendency toward caricature, roles reduced to heroes and villains – a pernicious issue that infects plotting and scripts and flows out into performances that leave our fine actors grasping like the soap stars they once were.

Neither is remotely present in After the Party, a six-part drama debuting on TVNZ that explores the lingering, crazy-making aftermath of a boozy party, featuring characters all on a spectrum between fallible and broken. It’s so tightly wound it barely takes a moment to blink, much less wink. I’ve seen the first three episodes and have no idea where they’re heading with this thing – it’s gritty, wrenching and highly confronting.

It stars Malcolm in what may prove a career-peak role, playing Penny, a teacher and grandmother who bikes everywhere through Wellington’s hills and wind. In school she’s in complete control as she coaches basketball, and has seen every scenario before: sanguine and pragmatic about issues from porn to truancy. Outside though, she’s struggling – her relationship with her daughter is shaky, and worse still with her mother. She models for life drawing and commits well-intentioned acts of activist vandalism. She’s a person we’ve all known, or maybe even recognise a little in ourselves: that type who can’t go along to get along, who picks and picks and presses until they alienate even those closest to them.

The catalysing event for a spiral into an array of poor decisions is the return of her ex. Phil is played by Scottish legend Peter Mullan, who radiates care and bonhomie while also hinting at an irresistible force beneath the surface. He’s been away five years after the brilliant, awful night alluded to in the show’s title and to which we return in flashbacks throughout. It’s a house party and the air is electric. It’s the kind of loose which is thrilling, but also leaves the door open for bad things. There are two generations getting out of it together, with the older group joined by a clutch of young friends of Penny and Phil’s daughter Grace, played with subtlety and power by newcomer Tara Canton.

The adults are doing shots, but so are the teens, and one, Ollie, gets into a state of semi-comatose nausea, vomiting all over himself. Later, Penny sees something appalling, something that changes the course of every life in the house. Only, what did she see? “Whatever you saw, it wasn’t that,” says Penny’s mother, knifing her in front of a roomful of their friends. “You’re making a fool out of yourself.”

This ambiguity is what the whole show pivots around. Penny can’t let it go, the community just wants to move on. Phil’s return dredges all this unresolved tension to seethe at the surface. Penny’s possessed by this knowledge, breaching friendships and boundaries and the law. You see the way this terrible knowledge eats her alive, burning through whatever vestigial relationships have survived her obsession to this point.

The show is striking. It’s beautifully shot across a large array of exteriors and interiors in a way that conjures a suburban village familiar to any New Zealander and that will authentically resonate beyond (it’s scheduled to play on ABC and ITV not long after its New Zealand premiere). The plot is almost too determined to keep the viewer guessing – at its midpoint we’re no closer to having a bead on what really happened that night. We might never, and that’s a good thing – but it’s also true that the fealty to realism also means the show drags a little at times.

The understated script draws stellar performances out, with Ian Blackburn (Ollie) and Dean O’Gorman (Penny’s too-solid friend Simon) particularly noteworthy. There’s also something modern and highly impressive about a crime drama without a cop in sight. This is just people, figuring it out among themselves, the way so much of life is really litigated.

It also subtly presses against recent trends in NZ On Air-funded series, in a way I want to carefully commend. The cast is largely Pākehā, and a character describes a restaurant as “gay”. I am not, to be clear, suggesting that this is good in and of itself. The push toward greater representation and consciousness of bias in New Zealand productions is manifestly excellent and essential. Yet at times the fact such a large number of our screen communities are perfectly racially blended and confident in their reo can make a show feel like it’s less about reflecting the messy reality of our society than an aspirational window into what we’d like it to be.

To be clear, this is not an argument in favour of more segregated shows – just that diversity and inclusion can be achieved across a slate, rather than being identically expressed within each individual production. The casting and language feels of a piece with every other aspect of After the Party, which ladders up to a drive for raw authenticity wherever possible. What has gone into making this production leap out from the crowd? Not to denigrate the brilliant work, but it might also be something as basic as the budget. After the Party came from a perfect storm of extra funding that emerged post-Covid, which might also explain why it’s got such strong international distribution.

UK Edition Change

UK Politics
News Videos
Paris 2024 Olympics
Rugby Union
Sport Videos
John Rentoul
Mary Dejevsky
Andrew Grice
Sean O’Grady
Photography
Theatre & Dance
Culture Videos
Fitness & Wellbeing
Food & Drink
Health & Families
Royal Family
Electric Vehicles
Car Insurance Deals
Lifestyle Videos
UK Hotel Reviews
News & Advice
Simon Calder
Australia & New Zealand
South America
C. America & Caribbean
Middle East
Politics Explained
News Analysis
Today’s Edition
Home & Garden
Broadband deals
Fashion & Beauty
Travel & Outdoors
Sports & Fitness
Climate 100
Sustainable Living
Climate Videos
Solar Panels
Behind The Headlines
On The Ground
Decomplicated
You Ask The Questions
Binge Watch
Travel Smart
Watch on your TV
Crosswords & Puzzles
Most Commented
Newsletters
Ask Me Anything
Virtual Events
Wine Offers

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in Please refresh your browser to be logged in

The Last Dinner Party, Prelude to Ecstasy review: With their decadent debut, the witchy quintet delivers on the hype

There’s a cool swagger to the gender fluidity of the album’s lyrics, article bookmarked.

Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile

The Last Dinner Party releases their debut album on 2 February

Sign up to Roisin O’Connor’s free weekly newsletter Now Hear This for the inside track on all things music

Get our now hear this email for free, thanks for signing up to the roisin o’connor’s email.

Most musicians who came of age during the pandemic are hushed and introspective, but The Last Dinner Party came out calling for “an end of the world orgy” – and Prelude to Ecstasy gleefully delivers.

Theatrically frocked in slashed velvet and lace – like the cast of a Merchant Ivory film after a night in a graveyard – the London quintet burst onto the scene last year with the giddily nihilistic “Nothing Matters”. It was a song that married the camp-crisp pronunciation and melodic smarts of ABBA to the dirty bacchanalia of indie rock, all topped off with a bodice ripper of a guitar solo courtesy of Emily Roberts. It’s a song that makes being young sound fun again.

Frontwoman Abigail Morris met Georgia Davies (bass) and Lizzie Maryland (vocals, guitar) shortly after starting university in 2020, and soon drafted classically trained Roberts and Aurora Nishevci (keyboards). In vintage style, they wrote a late-night manifesto they claim is stained with blood and wine about becoming the kind of band you’d hear at a “hedonistic banquet”. They dreamed of a sound with all the elegantly distressed layers and lavish melodrama of their costumes – then set about making it with the feverish determination of frustrated artists making up for lost Covid time. Early on, TLDP honed songs at sparsely attended gigs they treated like the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury – and the buzz grew quickly, seeing them named as the BBC’s predicted Sound of 2024.

Prelude to Ecstacy sets the mood with a sumptuous orchestral intro that slightly recalls Danny Elfman’s score to Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman . You can picture the bandmates standing on a rooftop, strings swirling around them like crinolines, as they survey their 21st-century Gotham City. Doom-decked brass and bells toll in the gothic romance. They announce their confidence with the controlled rumble of the timpani.

Then we’re off into the hooky bombast of “Burn Alive”, whose riff plays with the one on “Wish You Were Here”, Pink Floyd’s 1975 hymn to doomed, hedonistic youth. TLDP have no permanent drummer, which is a bit odd, but guest percussionist Rebekah Rayner batters up a storm as Morris yowls out lines of blood-sucking, stake-burning lust: “There is candle wax melting in my veins/ So I keep myself standing in your flames.”

There’s a very cool swagger to the gender fluidity of the lyrics throughout. Driven by the cocky strut of Davies’ bass, “Caesar on a TV Screen” sees Morris singing of life as a man: “When I put on that suit, I don’t have to stay mute/ I can talk all the time ‘cause my shoulders are wide.” She takes up all the vocal space, pouts in French, shouts out to Russia, yelps low and high. Later the dreamy “Beautiful Boy” – stitched together with the soft, silvery breath of Roberts’ flute – sees her yearning to be a young man.

Elsewhere, “The Feminine Urge” finds Morris chafing at the bonds of passive femininity. She conjures a little classic mythology to picture herself as “a dark red liver stretched out on a rock”, relentlessly regenerating the poison she’s given. “Lady of Mercy” embraces the sexy-religious iconography of the classic goth playbook: “Picture me in bed under your crucifix/ My lady of Mercy/ Pierce me straight through the heart!” I’m usually irked by any quirkily skirted act being compared to Kate Bush , but there’s no denying this band’s debt to her abandoned ambition.

“Sinner” sees the group go full glam rock ABBA: punchy-perky synth notes and multi-tracked back-to-back vocals graffitied over by the angry scrawl of Robert’s guitar. With its rolling bass, catchy tune, bouncy bass and sing-along summons to “turn to the altar of lust!”, it’s surely the song to play if you’re trying to convert your friends.

The band give hints of their range on the mandolin-freckled “Gjuha” and the piano-led “Portrait of a Dead Girl” – which trips, Queen-esque, through a medley of melodies building to swaying crescendos “over and over again”. They make you wait for the reckless shag of “Nothing Matters” before fading out to the soporific bass of “Mirror”. It’s a decadent blast to hear.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article

Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.

New to The Independent?

Or if you would prefer:

Hi {{indy.fullName}}

My Independent Premium
Account details
Help centre

International edition
Australia edition
Europe edition

Two men stand at a bar, one wearing a red and black suit and the other wearing a dark jacket

Deadpool & Wolverine: Marvel Jesus, potty mouths and bloody cameos – discuss with spoilers

The satirical superhero match-up broke rules and box office records, but what kind of Marvel cinematic universe has it left us with?

Major spoilers ahead

Deadpool & Wolverine is such a strange beast of a movie that some critics have suggested it may not even be a film at all – which rather begs the question, what exactly is it? An extended satirical comedy skit, like something you’d see on Saturday Night Live, but running more than two hours? A meta-infused, sarcastic diatribe against the entire superhero genre? A buddy movie featuring two middle-aged men in tight costumes who really should know better?

The reality is that Shawn Levy’s film is all of these things, and possibly not a lot more. The Marvel films are by their nature a little throwaway and made-in-the-moment, but this one feels so gossamer-thin that if you remove all the superhero tomfoolery, drug and sex japes, manic fourth wall breaking and endless, often rather pointless cameos, there is really very little left. Audiences from the future looking back at this one in 2045 might wonder exactly how Ryan Reynolds and his team got away with delivering something so flimsy and slight to the door of Marvel’s president, Kevin Feige. And yet it’s an undeniably entertaining romp that will no doubt deliver gazillions in box office greenbacks, just when Disney really needs them.

Whether it’s a movie, art, or anything substantial at all probably isn’t the point. The question here is whether Deadpool & Wolverine can save Marvel by dragging the studio out of its critical slump – is our hero really “Marvel Jesus”? – and whether we really want it to if this is what the next 10 years is going to look like.

What is this (very weird) fresh hell that Marvel has delivered?

Perhaps another way to describe Levy’s film is that it feels like an endless series of mostly impressive set pieces connected only loosely by anything approaching an actual plot. From the opening scenes in which Deadpool stunningly takes down a crew of Time Variance Authority agents using only bits of dead Fox-verse Wolverine’s adamantium-clad skeleton as the opening credits splatter across the screen, this is a film that is big on visuals and shock tactics – there have been suggestions that all the jokes about gay sex amount to little more than cynical queerbaiting – and rather lacking in traditional Marvel aesthetics such as universe-building and making logical sense.

Even Wolverine’s story arc is pretty much the same as the one we saw in 2017’s Logan, with the emotionally ravaged mutant left looking back in sorrow at a wasted life after all his X-buddies somehow copped it. The approach – sending up everything and taking nothing seriously – is exactly what Deadpool did in his previous 20th Century Fox movies, so should we really be shocked that the tone is exactly the same in the MCU?

The cameos, the sudden deaths, the multiversal switcheroos

Channing Tatum and Ryan Reynolds at Comic Con

I’ve read some critics suggesting that Deadpool & Wolverine’s cameos were delivered with greater guile than for example, those in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness – would you agree? I found myself unable to work out whether Channing Tatum’s turn as Gambit was intended to be terrible for deliberate comic effect, or if he really did need (as Reynolds suggests in-movie) to get a better dialect coach. Perhaps it was the huge, booming Imax cinema where the screening took place, but I found it impossible to understand what the card-wielding mutant was supposed to be saying.

Fair enough, I suppose, if the aim is just to take the piss. But I rather like Gambit as a character (especially after AJ LoCascio’s bravura turn in the excellent X-Men ‘97) and felt a little bit cheated. The impressive film-making sleight-of-hand as we were introduced to a hero who appeared to be Chris Evans’s Captain America in the Void, only for the person in question to turn out to be Chris Evans’s Johnny Storm, aka The Human Torch, was a palpably clever, brilliant moment. But then they killed him straight off in hyper-gruesome fashion. Oh well.

Why did they bother to bring back Jennifer Garner’s Elektra for all of five minutes? I’m not sure I was too fussed over Wesley Snipes’s brief appearance as Blade either, though at least the arrival of Dafne Keen’s X-23 in the MCU seems to be permanent. What did you think? Are we still supposed to get our fangirl and fanboy knickers in a twist over all this inter-universal shenanigans when it’s apparently all just one big joke?

Cassandra Nova and lots of little Loki-isms

It’s hard to escape the sense that Levy and Reynolds took one look at Loki seasons one and two and decided this was exactly the right kind of material to help them heavily satirise Marvel’s multiversal phase. Emma Corrin does a fine job as Professor X’s evil twin, though quite why they had to introduce herself as such, when Charles Xavier hasn’t even been properly debuted into the main Marvel reality, rather beats me. Those multiple Deadpool variants were briefly amusing, and who couldn’t love Dogpool? Yes, it’s Blake Lively as Lady Deadpool, who else?

A last hurrah for Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine?

While you might have thought you saw the last of him in 2017’s Logan, this was another chance to remind ourselves that Hugh Jackman’s curmudgeonly mutant has been one of the finest comic book creations of our times, even while the movies he has starred in have been more up and down than Hulk’s blood pressure at an anger management class. At least Deadpool & Wolverine didn’t take the easy option and kill him off again to pull on our tired and jaded heartstrings one last time.

And yet the existence of this version of Wolverine in the main MCU could end up making it harder rather than easy to bring the rest of the X-Men back. Will Professor X, Cyclops, Beast, Storm, Rogue, Mystique et al all now also have to be ported in from other universes? And what happens if another version of Logan ends up coming with them? This could get confusing.

Is the Marvel Cinematic Universe now forever changed, or just a bit more sweary?

two people in super hero suits, one holding a dog

Evans’s cameo was a smartly knowing snicker at the challenges Feige and co will face if they really want Deadpool to one day meet Thor, Hulk and Doctor Strange. Captain America could never appear in an R-rated movie packed with gags about anal sex and Colombian marching powder – this is a guy for whom “son of a bitch” is taking it about as far as he’s prepared to go. So will Deadpool himself have to tone it down when he inevitably turns up in an Avengers movie?

Levy’s film hints heavily that this will probably never happen, so far apart are those films tonally from the world of the Merc with a Mouth. “Deadpool & Wolverine isn’t a commercial for another movie,” said Reynolds recently . “It’s just not part of the DNA.” Having seen the film for yourself, do you have a sneaking suspicion that might just be for the best?

Deadpool & Wolverine
Now you've seen it
Superhero movies
Science fiction and fantasy films
Ryan Reynolds
Hugh Jackman

Comments (…)

Notice: All forms on this website are temporarily down for maintenance. You will not be able to complete a form to request information or a resource. We apologize for any inconvenience and will reactivate the forms as soon as possible.

DVD & Streaming

Afterlife of the Party

Comedy , Drama , Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Content Caution

In Theaters

Victoria Justice as Cassie; Midori Francis as Lisa; Robyn Scott as Val; Adam Garcia as Howie; Timothy Renouf as Max; Gloria Garcia as Sofia; Myfanwy Waring as Emme; Spencer Sutherland as Koop; Atarah Vecchione as Morgan; Kiroshan Naidoo as Raj; Adrienne Pearce as Dr. Redding; Bianca Oosthuizen as Piper

Home Release Date

September 2, 2021
Stephen Herek

Distributor

Movie review.

On the eve of her 25 th birthday, party girl Cassie gets a wake-up call …

But before she can enter into an eternal afterlife, Cassie is informed by Val (her sort of temporary guardian angel) that she has some “unfinished business” that she needs to attend to before the powers that be will decide if Cassie will be going “Above” or “Below .”

Cassie will have to make amends with those closest to her before she died. Easier said than done, especially since an entire year has passed on Earth.

First on the list is Cassie’s best friend, Lisa—er, former best friend. They had a terrible argument just before Cassie passed about how Cassie’s partying changed her into a different person (one whom Lisa wasn’t too fond of).

Next is Cassie’s mom, whom she only refers to as Sofia. Sofia left Cassie and her dad when Cassie was young, and Cassie never quite forgave her for that.

Finally, Cassie must find a way to connect with her dad. She always meant to visit him, but somehow her busy party lifestyle always got in the way.

It’s a tall order. And Cassie only has five days to fill it if she doesn’t want to be doomed to eternity “Below.”

Positive Elements

While alive, Cassie takes Lisa for granted. In her desire to be the center of attention, she ignores Lisa’s pleas to spend some one-on-one time together. And when Lisa suggests that they go home early since Cassie’s so-called “friends” don’t seem to really care about her, it sparks an argument between the women.

Cassie learns that because she died just after this disagreement, Lisa felt guilty and responsible for Cassie’s death. (When Cassie tried to apologize later that night, Lisa pretended to be asleep.) However, the argument didn’t end 19 years-worth of friendship. Because of their close connection, Cassie finds a way to reveal herself to Lisa (see Spiritual Content). The young women forgive each other, and Cassie builds her restored best friend up, encouraging Lisa and giving her the confidence to talk to her crush and apply for a job she really wants. Lisa, in turn, helps Cassie communicate with Sofia.

Though Lisa doesn’t tell Sofia that Cassie is technically present, she acts as an interpreter between the two women. Cassie learns that it wasn’t her fault that her mom left. And that her mom loves her. Sofia admits that she was selfish and immature at the time. She says she regrets leaving and even says that her ex-husband (Cassie’s dad) was a better man than she deserved. Cassie recognizes that she was more like her mom than she realized and forgives her as well.

Cassie has difficulty fixing things with her dad. For years, she had avoided spending time with him because she felt he was “smothering” her. She also mocked him for his yoga obsession. However, after she passed away, he fell into a depression, blaming himself for not being able to protect her. But Cassie persists and uses her angelic powers (see Spiritual Content) to get her dad to pursue his passion for yoga again. And eventually, she is able to reveal herself to him as well, giving him the closure he needs to move on with his life.

Though Cassie is only required to help the three people on the list Val gave her, she surprises Val by asking to help another, even though it means she might not meet her 5-day deadline. And when she’s ready to give up and face whatever is in the “Below,” she decides to keep going since Val tells Cassie that all of her hard work will be undone if she fails. Moreover, when Val breaks the rules to help Cassie out, Cassie takes full responsibility, risking her own afterlife to prevent Val from getting into trouble.

Spiritual Elements

The afterlife that Cassie experiences has three different destinations. The “In-Between” that she initially lands in is for people like her who have unfinished business. It’s presented as a waiting room (which is individualized for each person to help make their transition into the afterlife more comfortable) located in the angel headquarters.

If she can find peaceful closure, improving the lives of those she left behind on Earth, Cassie will ride an elevator to the “Above,” which is described as a sort of spa. (And later, we see it visualized as a beautiful Garden of Eden-esque paradise.) One man goes here directly, stating that he died saving people from a natural disaster while doing relief work for a different natural disaster.

However, if Cassie fails to complete her task list, she’ll be sent “Below.” And while nobody confirms what it’s like, Cassie imagines that it’s a place for murderers and “people who don’t like Beyoncé.”

Val serves as Cassie’s afterlife guardian angel, guiding the young woman and encouraging her to complete her tasks. She tells Cassie that it’s her dream to get promoted to full guardian angel status, since she would then be able to help people while they’re still alive, not only after they’ve died. (We also learn that there is an angel committee that decides where people go when they die.)

Though angels don’t have wings and only wear halos “on special occasions,” they do have supernatural powers. Val can teleport herself and Cassie anywhere in the world and talk to animals, though she can’t control minds or communicate telepathically (since that’s a higher paygrade).

Cassie is given access to the “basic angel package,” allowing her to teleport to the places where she is needed on Earth and to change her clothes with her mind. But she’s told that nobody will be able to see or hear her (except dogs and small children) and that she won’t be able to move objects in the physical world. However, because of her close relationship with Lisa, Cassie is able to establish a rare “soul mate” connection, which allows the girls to see and talk to each other. It also allows Cassie to move objects around as long as it’s for the benefit of the people on her list.

Though God is never specifically mentioned, someone mistakenly thinks He is a woman. When Cassie uses her powers to help her dad, he thanks the “universe.” We see Buddha statues in a yoga studio. Cassie’s parents both say they can feel her presence. Lisa says she needs an exorcist when she first sees Cassie.

Sexual Content

Lisa has a crush on her neighbor, Max. And as a part of Cassie’s redemption, Cassie builds Lisa up and encourages her to pursue a romantic relationship with Max. Lisa does and after a successful first date, the couple makes out.

Cassie has a crush on the pop star Koop. She kisses pictures of him and fawns over him in other scenes.

Some women wear revealing clothes. Couples hold hands. We hear about a divorce.

Violent Content

Cassie dies after slipping and hitting her head on a toilet.

Crude or Profane Language

There are three misuses of God’s name. The substitutes “gosh” and “freaking” are also heard. When Cassie says the word “swear,” she is scolded for swearing by Val.

Drug and Alcohol Content

People drink throughout the film (and Cassie’s dad drinks to handle his depression after she dies). The night that Cassie dies, she becomes drunk and stumbles around her apartment. The next morning, still stumbling from the intoxication, she slips in the bathroom, causing her untimely death. Someone says that champagne with gold flakes makes people hallucinate.

Other Negative Elements

One of Lisa’s coworkers is a bit obnoxious and tries to psych her out to stop her from applying for a job he wants. When Lisa acts humble, a woman tells her that “modesty is a myth sold to women.”

It’s always sad when someone dies young. However, Cassie is positive about her non-future stating that there has to be a reason she died, even if she doesn’t quite know what it is yet.

By the end of the film, it’s pretty clear.

Alive, Cassie was sinking further and further into a lifestyle of selfishness and bad decisions. Dead, she learns what really mattered all along—true friends and family.

Cassie is given a second chance to make things right with the ones she loves (and who love her in return). And along the way, she realizes that it’s not so much about doing good for the sake of her eternal fate, but rather helping others out for their benefit.

That other-centered and even sacrificial message could be seen as echoing similar themes in the Bible. Cassie’s spiritual journey—albeit one that she’s highly motivated to make—prompts her to begin to look after others’ needs instead of her own, even to the extent of being willing to sacrifice her eternal destiny to protect Val.

Still, the depiction of the afterlife here veers from a Christian understanding of that concept. A person’s afterlife destination in this story is determined by her works and her core goodness. Scripture, in contrast, teaches that none of us can merit salvation by being good enough. We all sin and turn away from God, which is why Jesus died—to bring us forgiveness and to restore our broken relationship with the Father.

With that in mind, families will want to think through whether this lighthearted fable about the afterlife is worthy of a watch and a conversation afterward. And to the film’s credit, it’s largely free of other seriously problematic content. In fact, Cassie’s death is related to drinking too much, something that could be seen as another cautionary message in the film. Lisa repeatedly asks Cassie to stop indulging. She doesn’t. And she dies because of it.

There’s another redemptive message here too: Cassie learns that her value was never tied to whether or not people knew who she was or even whether or not those same people liked her. She was valued by the ones she loved because she was there .

In the end, Afterlife of the Party is a bit of an odd duck. It’s a mix of redemptive and cautionary messages mingled with some important theological issues that families who watch will want to address very intentionally.

Emily Tsiao

Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.

Latest Reviews

Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie

The Firing Squad

Harold and the Purple Crayon

Weekly Reviews Straight to your Inbox!

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, chaz's journal, great movies, contributors, harold and the purple crayon.

Now streaming on:

As someone who venerates Harold and the Purple Crayon , Crockett Johnson ’s 1955 hymn to the power of imagination (I gift every love one's new baby with a copy of the book with a purple crayon taped inside), the idea of a film adaptation has always filled me with a certain sense of trepidation. This is due to the somewhat uneven track record of past attempts to bring the great works of children’s literature to the screen. Sure, a film like Spike Jonze ’s take on Maurice Sendak’s beloved “ Where the Wild Things Are ” captured the delicate charms of its source material in ways that enchanted viewers both young and old. But for every one of those, there's something like that monstrous live-action version of “The Cat in the Hat,” a movie just as bad as the original Dr. Seuss book was good.

Now “Harold and the Purple Crayon” has arrived in theaters in all its live-action glory. It starts on a surprisingly engaging note: a 2-D animated sequence that recaps Harold’s adventures in the book. The sequence finds a decent approximation of the book’s famous visual style and features narration by Alfred Molina . Unfortunately, that sequence lasts about 90-odd seconds, and the real story kicks in after that. Everything goes straight to ultra-garish Hell via a narrative that feels more like a failed “ Jumanji ” knockoff than anything that the late Johnson’s work could have possibly inspired. Here is a film that pays lip service to the importance of creativity without ever displaying a demonstrable shred of it during its seemingly interminable run time.

After that recap of the original story, we see a now-grown Harold ( Zachary Levi ) still cavorting through his cartoon world along with friends Moose ( Lil Rel Howery ) and Porcupine ( Tanya Reynolds ) and the ever-present voice of the narrator. Then, one day, the narrator’s voice disappears, and Harold decides to use his all-powerful crayon to draw a portal to our world so that the three of them can try to track him down. Alas, the real world proves to be odd and confusing for them, so luckily, Harold and Moose (now in human form, though he occasionally switches back for no apparent reason) end up running into Terri ( Zooey Deschanel ) and Melvin ( Benjamin Bottani ), a mother and middle school-aged son who are still in the dumps since the death of Mel’s dad. For reasons that defy explanation, she allows them to stay the night at her house, where Harold finds Mel to be a kindred spirit — he has an unseen imaginary pet that is equal parts eagle, lion, and alligator — and lets him in on the magical crayon. (Porcupine, for the record, has gotten separated from the others and is off wreaking benign havoc on her own.)

While Terri is off at her job at Ollie’s — an institution shown far more reverence here than Johnson’s book — Mel ends up helping Harold and Moose to find the narrator, leading to any number of wacky slapstick scenes in which they fly through the air in a plane or cause mayhem at the store. They also enlist the aid of Gary (Jermaine Clement), a creepy librarian with the hots for Terri, who is also the author of an unpublishable fantasy novel called “The Glaive of Gagaroh” (allowing the film also to alienate fans of “Krull” to boot). Eventually, Gary reveals to Harold that he is, in fact, a character from a book, which sends Harold, Moose, and Mel off on a trip to Crockett Johnson’s house to finally see him. Although Google helpfully reveals the address, it inexplicably fails to mention the key reason why they could have skipped that trip. Meanwhile, Gary, having seen the crayon’s power first-hand, schemes to acquire it for himself and bring the universe of his book to life.

Trying to transform Crockett’s 64-page book into a feature-length film would always be a dubious proposition. But even the most pessimistic of minds could have imagined something as dire as this. For starters, Harold himself has been transformed into one of the most annoying screen characters in recent memory thanks to the appallingly clumsy screenplay by David Guion and Michael Handelman that tries to make him into an irrepressible free spirit along the lines of Buddy in “ Elf .” Still, he only manages to make him obnoxious beyond belief. Things aren’t helped much by Levi’s awful performance, which tries for winsome adorableness throughout but which comes across as if a.) Levi had been struck in the head with a board before every take, and b.) that director Carlos Saldanha did enough takes to rival Kubrick before he (and presumably only he) was satisfied. Beyond that, the storyline is choppy, the visuals are utterly blah, the big set-pieces are the usual CGI-happy dreck, the sentimental moments are woefully unearned, and the notion of a film ostensibly celebrating children’s literature utilizing a librarian as the bad guy is infuriating.

Before you send me comments scolding me for not looking at this film through the eyes of a child, based on the available evidence, no one involved with “Harold and the Purple Crayon” had any real interest in engaging younger viewers on any level. Sadly, exploiting the good name of a familiar piece of IP in the hope of scoring a few bucks from families that have already seen “ Inside Out 2 ” and “ Despicable Me 4 ” and are looking for something else to watch seems to have been of more importance to actually living up to the legacy of said IP.

Ultimately, “Harold and the Purple Crayon” is the product of people working under the cynical belief that kids will just accept anything foisted upon them in the name of “family entertainment” as long as it is noisy and colorful. If you genuinely care for your kids, you will give this movie a wide berth and use the ticket money to buy and read Crockett’s original book and its follow-ups. Trust me, they'll thank you for it one day.

Peter Sobczynski

A moderately insightful critic, full-on Swiftie and all-around bon vivant , Peter Sobczynski, in addition to his work at this site, is also a contributor to The Spool and can be heard weekly discussing new Blu-Ray releases on the Movie Madness podcast on the Now Playing network.

Now playing

Brian Tallerico

Lady in the Lake

Kaiya shunyata.

Robert Daniels

National Anthem

Sheila o'malley.

Customs Frontline

Simon abrams, film credits.

Harold and the Purple Crayon movie poster

Harold and the Purple Crayon (2024)

Zachary Levi as Harold

Lil Rel Howery as Moose

Benjamin Bottani as Mel

Jemaine Clement as Gary

Tanya Reynolds as Porcupine

Carlos Saldanha
David Guion
Michael Handelman

Latest blog posts

I’ve Got A Way With Young People: 25 Years of Dick

The Unloved, Part 128: Cobweb

Shadow of the Erdtree Expands Scope of One of the Best Games of Its Era

Losers Win: Guardians of the Galaxy Turns 10

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Trouble logging in?

By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.

Email not verified

Let's keep in touch.

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

Upcoming Movies and TV shows
Rotten Tomatoes Podcast
Media News + More

By clicking "Sign Me Up," you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and communications from Fandango Media (Fandango, Vudu, and Rotten Tomatoes) and consenting to Fandango's Privacy Policy and Terms and Policies . Please allow 10 business days for your account to reflect your preferences.

OK, got it!

What's the Tomatometer®?
Login/signup

Movies in theaters

Opening this week
Top box office
Coming soon to theaters
Certified fresh movies

Movies at home

Fandango at Home
Prime Video
Most popular streaming movies
What to Watch New

Certified fresh picks

78% Deadpool & Wolverine Link to Deadpool & Wolverine
97% Sing Sing Link to Sing Sing
96% Dìdi Link to Dìdi

New TV Tonight

-- The Umbrella Academy: Season 4
-- Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Season 1
-- Mr. Throwback: Season 1
-- Dance Moms: A New Era: Season 1
-- Love Is Blind: UK: Season 1
-- The Mallorca Files: Season 3
-- Taken Together: Who Killed Lyric and Elizabeth?: Season 1
-- PD True: Season 1
-- Yo Gabba GabbaLand!: Season 1

Where to Watch

Rent The Party on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV, or buy it on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV.

Critics Reviews

Audience reviews, cast & crew.

Blake Edwards

Peter Sellers

Hrundi V. Bakshi

Claudine Longet

Michele Monet

Marge Champion

Rosalind Dunphy

Gavin MacLeod

Charlie S. Divot

Sharron Kimberly

Princess Helena

Movie Clips

Or browse by category:

Get the app
Movie Reviews
Best Movie Lists
Best Movies on Netflix, Disney+, and More

Common Sense Selections for Movies

50 Modern Movies All Kids Should Watch Before They're 12

Best TV Lists
Best TV Shows on Netflix, Disney+, and More
Common Sense Selections for TV
Video Reviews of TV Shows

Best Kids' Shows on Disney+

Best Kids' TV Shows on Netflix

Book Reviews
Best Book Lists
Common Sense Selections for Books

8 Tips for Getting Kids Hooked on Books

50 Books All Kids Should Read Before They're 12

Game Reviews
Best Game Lists

Common Sense Selections for Games

Video Reviews of Games

Nintendo Switch Games for Family Fun

Podcast Reviews
Best Podcast Lists

Common Sense Selections for Podcasts

Parents' Guide to Podcasts

App Reviews
Best App Lists

Social Networking for Teens

Gun-Free Action Game Apps

Reviews for AI Apps and Tools

YouTube Channel Reviews
YouTube Kids Channels by Topic

Parents' Ultimate Guide to YouTube Kids

How to Prepare Your Kids for School After a Summer of Screen Time

Family Tech Planners
Digital Skills
All Articles
Latino Culture
Black Voices
Asian Stories
Native Narratives
LGBTQ+ Pride
Best of Diverse Representation List

Multicultural Books

YouTube Channels with Diverse Representations

Podcasts with Diverse Characters and Stories

Afterlife of the party, common sense media reviewers.

Supernatural dramedy has emotional intensity, partying.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

It's important to forgive our loved ones their fau

Cassie is the life of every party but has started

Character names and appearances suggest ethnic div

A young woman with a hangover falls in the bathroo

Lisa and her neighbor have crushes on each other b

"Sucked," "fricking," "God."

Specific mention of Twitter, TikTok, and Google.

Cassie goes wild, drinking shots and dancing on th

Positive Messages

It's important to forgive our loved ones their faults and have compassion for them, and also to give meaningful relationships a second chance when necessary. Social media is sometimes used as a substitute for real human interaction. Separations can sometimes be positive in the long run for individuals. People can have very different strengths, interests, and personalities and still be close friends. Young adults can be selfish and superficial because they think they have a life ahead of them to work things out.

Positive Role Models

Cassie is the life of every party but has started ignoring the emotional needs of her loved ones. She's forced to face her selfishness, learn from it, and help those loved ones heal from her death and move on. Her mom abandoned their family as a young woman and holds a lot of guilt as a result. Lisa undervalues herself at work and is too shy to ask out the man she likes. Cassie helps her gain courage, and her professional mentor tells her: "Modesty is a myth that was sold to women a long time ago. Be proud of your work."

Diverse Representations

Character names and appearances suggest ethnic diversity, but this isn't a topic addressed in the film. Multiple characters have international accents in English, and Cassie's mom speaks a line of Spanish to her younger daughter.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

A young woman with a hangover falls in the bathroom, hits her head on the toilet, and dies. She's then stuck in a kind of purgatory before it's decided whether she goes "above" or "below." Characters are dealing with serious grief, if not outright depression, from her death.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Lisa and her neighbor have crushes on each other but are too shy and awkward to do anything about it. They finally have a date and kiss. Cassie jokes "way to angel block" when her guardian angel transports her out of a setting with a man she likes. She has a lifelong crush on a pop singer. Cassie "plays Cupid" and orchestrates for two potential love interests to meet.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Drinking, drugs & smoking.

Cassie goes wild, drinking shots and dancing on the bar top, at her 25th birthday celebration, waking up hungover. Lisa and Max share a glass of wine on two different occasions. Lisa tells Cassie there's "more to life than partying."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Afterlife of the Party is about a young woman named Cassie ( Victoria Justice ) who dies in an accident and then has to come back to Earth to mend broken relationships. Some of her friends and family members are still grieving her death a year later, and her father appears to be depressed. The sadder parts of the story could hit some viewers hard, including when Cassie realizes all the things she's going to miss out on because she died so young, and when her loved ones have to say good-bye for a final time. Her abrupt death comes in a briefly shocking moment the morning after some wild partying for her 25th birthday; scenes show young adults drinking shots and dancing on top of a bar. But other than that, there are just two scenes in which adults drink a glass of wine. Sexual content is also pretty limited: Expect some kissing and references to dating, liking a person, playing Cupid for others, and being "blocked." Cassie is depicted as shallow, focused solely on having a good time and looking perfect, and relying too much on social media. Her best friend needs help overcoming insecurities at work and shyness in her personal life. Language includes "sucked," "fricking," and "God." To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Community Reviews

Parents say (5)
Kids say (7)

Based on 5 parent reviews

What's the Story?

Event-planner Cassie ( Victoria Justice ) is a party girl who accidentally dies the day after her wild 25th birthday, meaning she'll now have to be the AFTERLIFE OF THE PARTY. Unfortunately for her, she's left some loose ends on earth. Her guardian angel Val (Robyn Scott) informs her that she's in the "in between," neither heaven nor hell, until she can fix the relationships she's left behind on earth. Before dying, Cassie had a fallout with best friend Lisa (Midori Francis), leaving both of them feeling guilty. Meanwhile, her dad (Adam Garcia) is struggling to get over his daughter's death, and Cassie and her estranged mom (Gloria Garcia) have a lot of unresolved issues. Trouble is, she only has five days to make things right before she's sent to the "above" or "below."

Is It Any Good?

This supernatural dramedy is predictable, but its two charismatic stars keep it from suffering as clumsy a death as its main character. Part of the problem is that the central idea of Afterlife of the Party is quite sad -- a 25-year-old dead by accident in the prime of her life -- yet the film does everything it can in its first half to play this as straight comedy. (Even Netflix's marketing of the film refers to her death as a "party foul.") Things noticeably improve in the second half as the script delves into what Cassie is leaving behind and allows its characters to actually feel something, but the disconnect in tone is noticeable.

Victoria Justice and Midori Francis do a great job embodying best friends with contrasting personalities, even though they're straddled with fairly two-dimensional profiles. Cassie is also perpetually squeezed into glamorous, skin-tight outfits matched with perfect hair and make-up. When Lisa complains that Cassie is hanging out with people who "look filtered 24-7," it feels unintentionally ironic to the casting and styling of the stunning Justice, a former Nickelodeon star. Too bad the filmmakers didn't trust her to shoulder a less encumbered performance. She suggests here that she'd do a great job at it.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the idea of an afterlife, as seen in Afterlife of the Party . Here, "above" and "below" are like traditional notions of heaven and hell. How do different people's conceptions of what happens after death vary, and why?

Was Cassie returned to earth to help others, help herself, or both? Why?

Star Victoria Justice got her start on a Nickelodeon show. What other actors do you know who have transitioned from childhood TV programs to movies as adults?

Movie Details

On DVD or streaming : September 2, 2021
Cast : Victoria Justice , Midori Francis , Adam Garcia
Director : Stephen Herek
Inclusion Information : Female actors, Latino actors, Queer actors, Asian actors
Studio : Netflix
Genre : Comedy
Topics : Friendship , Monsters, Ghosts, and Vampires
Run time : 109 minutes
MPAA rating : NR
Last updated : February 17, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

Our editors recommend.

The Good Place

Want personalized picks for your kids' age and interests?

Heaven Can Wait

Down to Earth

City of Angels

Romantic comedies, romance movies, related topics.

Monsters, Ghosts, and Vampires

Want suggestions based on your streaming services? Get personalized recommendations

Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

Review: In a lockdown that resembles recent history, ‘Coup!’ stages a revolution born of pandemic

A cook with a knife smiles over a carcass on a spit.

Copy Link URL Copied!

As early as the end of 2020, a wave of films began to speak to the COVID-19 pandemic, either explicitly or unintentionally via the limits of their production. Some movies addressed the quarantine and lockdown and the way that our lives had changed. Others simply told stories with just a few people in a single location, which were easier to film safely.

But four years out, we’re getting work that articulates the 2020 pandemic by taking on another pandemic a century ago: the 1918 influenza pandemic. Written and directed by Joseph Schuman and Austin Stark, “Coup!” is a spritely class satire set during this era, though the issues it tackles feel all too timely, which is something all good period pieces should strive for.

One of the film’s antiheroes, Floyd ( Peter Sarsgaard ), speaks plainly as to what the 2020 pandemic taught us when he tells his employer’s wife, Julia ( Sarah Gadon ), “Nature has a way of creeping into the modern world, bringing out the beast in some and the beauty in others.” Many would agree that the turmoil and fear of the recent pandemic and lockdown revealed some of our basest human instincts and tendencies, in ways that we are still grappling with.

Floyd’s employer is Jay (Billy Magnussen), a wealthy trust-fund kid and proud muckraker. He’s holed up with his family and servants at their palatial estate on Egg Island, waiting out the pandemic while hammering out fiery newspaper columns demanding the government shut down businesses to protect the working class from the spread of influenza. We meet Floyd as he assumes another man’s identity and makes his way to the island to present himself as the Horton family’s latest personal chef.

A woman in pearls reads what a man is typing.

But while Floyd cooks up vegetable-forward meals for the staunchly plant-based Jay, he also seizes the opportunity to foment rebellion among the household, beginning with the staff, a diverse group made up of a Black governess (Skye P. Marshall), a Turkish driver (Faran Tahir) and an Irish housekeeper (Kristine Nielsen). Floyd himself is a veteran of the Spanish-American War with a vaguely Louisiana accent; he has little patience for the rules of Jay’s home, especially when the lord of the manor is such an obvious hypocrite.

The writer rattles off missives condemning the Wilson administration and falsely claiming to be at the center of protests in New York City, all while ensconced in his luxurious isolation, waited on hand and foot. Floyd instantly chafes at the hierarchies imposed in Jay’s household, and when the island is cut off from ferries and grocery stores are closed, the mansion becomes dependent on its cook to provide. As the manor devolves into something like “Lord of the Flies,” our hedonistic interloper uses this opening to become a usurper.

a photo collage of 4 movie theater facades side by side

The 27 best movie theaters in Los Angeles

We’ve mapped out 27 of the best movie theaters in L.A., from the TCL Chinese and the New Beverly to the Alamo Drafthouse and which AMC reigns in Burbank.

Nov. 22, 2023

Sarsgaard and Magnussen are terrific actors who are skilled at what they do, and they do it here very well. The former excels at playing the earthy, sly, seductive trickster, the latter, the pompous, self-important rich boy. Gadon plays the feminine foil to both actors with ease.

Shot by Conor Murphy with a woodsy glow that evokes the luxury of the grand manor’s interiors (as well as a sepia-tinted vintage quality), “Coup!” shows off a richness and warmth that belies the cynical and cutting nature of the story. While a few extra characters are left at loose ends and therefore feel extraneous, those aren’t necessary for the communication of the central ideas of class warfare and hypocrisy. Anchored by its leads, “Coup!” is a tasty morsel of social commentary about problems that continue to plague our world.

Walsh is a Tribune News Service film critic.

'Coup!'

Not rated Running time: 1 hour, 38 minutes Playing: In limited release Friday, Aug. 2

Eric Klinenberg wants you to reexamine the impact of the pandemic: ‘We are all living through the long 2020’

Feb. 20, 2024

A man with his head bowed and his hands clasped with a television on in the background in the documentary "Bad Axe."

Review: Welcome to ‘Bad Axe,’ where a multicultural American family braves the pandemic

Nov. 17, 2022

The Patient -- "The Patient" is a psychological thriller from the minds of Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg ("The Americans") about a therapist, "Alan Strauss" (Steve Carell), who's held prisoner by a patient, "Sam Fortner" (Domhnall Gleeson), who reveals himself to be a serial killer. Sam has an unusual therapeutic demand for Alan: curb his homicidal urges. Alan Strauss (Steve Carell) and Sam Fortner (Domhnall Gleeson), shown. (Photo by: Suzanne Tenner/FX)

Column: Is ‘The Patient’ a full-blown allegory for the pandemic, or is it just me?

Aug. 31, 2022

Only good movies

Get the Indie Focus newsletter, Mark Olsen's weekly guide to the world of cinema.

You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.

More From the Los Angeles Times

Hollywood Inc.

Box office: ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ continues strong box office run during second weekend

A man draws an airplane with a purple crayon in thin air.

Review: In the awkward ‘Harold and the Purple Crayon,’ a toddler is now a childlike adult

Aug. 2, 2024

Review: A gay writer gets risky to supercharge his stalled literary career in ‘Sebastian’

An older man with white hair smiles in a gray jacket and pink shirt at a golf course

Sandy Bresler, Jack Nicholson’s longtime agent and agency co-founder, dies at 87

What's New

Contributors
Other Sports
Marie Claire
Appointments
Business News
Business RoundUp
Capital Market
Communications
Love and Relationships
On The Cover
Travel and Places
Social Media
Visual Arts
BusinessAgro
Executive Motoring
Executive Briefs
Friday Worship
Youth Speak
Corporate Social Responsibility
Philanthropy
Social Impact
Environment
Mortgage Finance
Real Estate
Urban Development
Youth Magazine
Life & Style
Love & Life
Travel & Tourism
Brand Intelligence
Weekend Beats
Ibru Ecumenical Centre
News Feature
Living Healthy Diet
Living Wellbeing
Guardian TV

Swimming: US win Olympic women's 4x100m medley gold with world record
Djokovic wins Olympic gold to complete career Golden Slam
Thugs chase #EndBadGovernance protesters from Lagos Park
Full Speech: Tinubu addresses nation over #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria protest
Protests: Tinubu to address Nigerians Sunday

Onyeka Onwenu: A Life Dedicated To Music, Film, Social Change

Onyeka Onwenu, the “Elegant Stallion” of Nigerian music and cinema, sadly passed away on Tuesday, July 30, 2024. The singer slumped and died shortly after performing at a birthday party in Lagos.

As we reflect on Onyeka Onwenu’s remarkable career, we are reminded of the undeniable impact she left on the Nigerian entertainment industry.

Her musical journey

Onwenu’s musical career began in the early 1980s with the release of her debut album, Endless Life , produced by the legendary Sunny Okosun. This album was an instant hit, setting the stage for what would be a remarkable career as a singer-songwriter.

Over the years, Onwenu released a series of successful albums, showcasing her versatility and musical genius. Her 1984 album, Golden Songs Volume 1 , featured 10 tracks with Onwenu as the sole vocalist. Also, she showcased her talent as a skilled songwriter in all of her albums. Her music was a blend of Afropop, Juju, and highlife.

Additionally, she incorporated both English and local languages in her music. She made it a point to deliver socially conscious songs that were relevant to societal issues Nigeria was facing at the time.

One of Onwenu’s most iconic collaborations was her duet with the “King of Juju Music,” King Sunny Adé, on the track Madawolohun (Let Them Say) from her Dancing in the Sun album.

The song was widely accepted by listeners and was celebrated for its unique sound. Subsequently, Onwenu collaborated with King Sunny Adé on two more tracks, Wait for Me and Choices .

These tracks discussed several important social issues such as family planning and birth control. These topics were generally seen as taboo in Nigeria to discuss publicly.

Throughout her musical career, Onwenu used her platform to address topics like HIV/AIDS, peace, and human rights. These made her widely known as an artiste-activist.

Cinematic brilliance

In addition to her remarkable musical career, Onyeka Onwenu made a significant impact on the Nigerian film industry, Nollywood. She made her acting debut in 1999 with the film Nightmare and went on to star in numerous iconic roles, working alongside some of Nollywood’s most renowned actors.

Onwenu’s most acclaimed film is Women’s Cot , released in 2006. The film earned four nominations at the 2nd Africa Movie Academy Awards, and Onwenu’s co-star, Joke Silva, won the award for Best Actress for her performance in the film. Women’s Cot is an exploration of the challenges faced by widows in Nigerian society. The film tells the story of a widow whose in-laws treat her poorly after the passing of her husband, leading her to join the widow’s cot.

Onwenu’s filmography also includes other notable titles such as Different World , Half of a Yellow Sun , and Lionheart , among others. Her last film, Obara’M , was released in 2023. A mere glance at her filmography shows her dedication and talent as a versatile actress.

READ ALSO: Iconic singer, Onyeka Onwenu, dies after performance in Lagos

A legacy that lives on

Onyeka Onwenu’s passing is a profound loss for the Nigerian entertainment industry and the country as a whole. Through her music and her acting, she entertained thousands of Nigerians. Surprisingly, her last public appearance was a musical performance at a birthday party.

As we mourn the loss of this exceptional talent, we also celebrate the legacy she has left behind.

cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Why are you flagging this comment?

I disagree with this user

Targeted harassment - posted harassing comments or discussions targeting me, or encouraged others to do so

Spam - posted spam comments or discussions

Inappropriate profile - profile contains inappropriate images or text

Threatening content - posted directly threatening content

Private information - posted someone else's personally identifiable information

Before flagging, please keep in mind that Disqus does not moderate communities. Your username will be shown to the moderator, so you should only flag this comment for one of the reasons listed above.

We will review and take appropriate action.

Guardian Life

Get the latest news delivered straight to your inbox every day of the week. Stay informed with the Guardian’s leading coverage of Nigerian and world news, business, technology and sports.

Please Enable JavaScript in your Browser to Visit this Site.

IMAGES

The Party movie review & film summary (2018)
The Party
The Party movie review & film summary (2018)
the party movie
The Party
The Party Review

VIDEO

Bachelor Party Movie Review
Office Christmas Party movie review
Sausage Party Movie Review
DANCE PARTY MOVIE REVIEW / Theatre Response / Public Review / Sohan Seenulal
Guardian Movie Public Review
Sausage Party

COMMENTS

The Guardian
We would like to show you a description here but the site won't allow us.
The Party movie review & film summary (2018)
As serious as things get, "The Party" never stops being funny, sometimes terribly so. "I believe in truth and reconciliation. Truth and reconciliation" says a broken-down Janet near the end, right before biting into her own wrist. Shot in a velvety widescreen black-and-white, performed with utmost commitment by its unimpeachable cast ...
The Party movie review & film summary (1968)
The low point in his self-indulgence came in "Casino Royale" (1967), a film unjustly neglected in the lists of last year's worst. All of this is one reason why "The Party" is so enjoyable. Sellers works. He develops a character and plays it, for better or worse, for the whole movie. No costume changes.
Review: A London Night Goes Wrong in 'The Party'
By Manohla Dargis. Feb. 15, 2018. Timothy Spall looks so defeated in "The Party" it's a wonder he isn't waving a white flag. His body droops and his face sags, jowls draping under a thatch ...
'The Party': Film Review
A gathering of old friends fasten their seatbelts for a bumpy night of explosive revelations in The Party, a Berlin competition contender from veteran British writer-director Sally Potter.Boasting ...
The Party (2017 film)
The Party is a 2017 British black comedy film written and directed by Sally Potter. The film was shot in black and white and features a seven-actor ensemble of Patricia Clarkson, Bruno Ganz, Cherry Jones, Emily Mortimer, Cillian Murphy, Kristin Scott Thomas and Timothy Spall.. It was selected to compete for the Golden Bear in the main competition section of the 67th Berlin International Film ...
Sally Potter's Tepid Satire 'The Party,' Reviewed : NPR
British filmmaker Sally Potter, a bold adventurer with form and genre, has racked up a formidable resume of hits and some misses, among them the gorgeous historical gender-bender Orlando (1992 ...
The Party
The Party is a pitch-black, hilarious and satirical comedy with a fantastic cast and Sally Potter's assured filmmaking. Although the film may not have the impact that it could have, The Party was ...
The Party: Movie Review
Ever unpredictable, the writer-director Sally Potter returns with The Party, a brief (barely over an hour, sans credits) and darkly amusing specimen of the dinner-party-from-hell subgenre.
The Party
The Party starring Patricia Clarkson, Bruno Ganz and Cillian Murphy directed by Sally Potter is reviewed by Christy Lemire, Ben Mankiewicz, Alonso Duralde an...
The Party Movie Review
Parents say ( 1 ): Kids say ( 2 ): This playlike dramedy is sharp and good-looking (in black and white), but it's also shrill and aggressive, hurling nasty, witty barbs at the speed of suffering; it's smart without being thoughtful. The humor in The Party seems to be based on subtle differences in political preferences, though the movie does ...
Paris' Olympics opening was wacky and wonderful
PARIS (AP) — Paris: the Olympic gold medalist of naughtiness. Revolution ran like a high-voltage wire through the wacky, wonderful and rule-breaking Olympic opening ceremony that the French capital used to astound, bemuse and, at times, poke a finger in the eye of global audiences on Friday night.. That Paris put on the most flamboyant, diversity-celebrating, LGBTQ+-visible of opening ...
Movie Review: 'The Party'
★★★★☆ A dark, caustically comedic film that breathes new life into the classic dinner party pressure cooker trope, "The Party" is a satirical, witty airing of dirty laundry. The newest release by experimental filmmaker Sally Potter, "The Party" peels back the layers of middle-class elitism to reveal its hidden acidity. The film is set at...
Trap movie review & film summary (2024)
Pop music really can change your life. That's part of the setup of M. Night Shyamalan's near-miss of a thriller "Trap," a movie that feels less like the Night Brand than a lot of his twisty ventures, a pared-down version of what he does that needed a round or two more of fleshing out its best ideas and amplifying its visual language.
'Kleo' Review: Spy vs. a Lot of Other Spies
The archly humorous, high-body-count Netflix series about an ex-Stasi assassin is like "Killing Eve" with a more discernible heartbeat.
Trap 2024 Movie Reviews: Critics Share Strong First Reactions
Anticipation grows as the first reviews for M. Night Shyamalan's Trap generate hype for its upcoming release in August.. Trap is a 2024 psychological thriller highlighting a serial killer named Cooper, "The Butcher" who goes to a Lady Raven concert with his teenage daughter. He later realizes that the concert is a trap set by law enforcement to try to catch him.
Review: 'Kneecap' is an Irish hip-hop tale with an edge
A fiery celebration of hip-hop and native language as nothing less than expressions of hard-fought freedom, "Kneecap" is like an Irish "8 Mile." Kneecap is a real rap group in Northern Ireland ...
Review: After the Party is queasy, morally complex and NZ's best TV
After the Party came from a perfect storm of extra funding that emerged post-Covid, which might also explain why it's got such strong international distribution. Anyone who watches it will ...
Italian Boxer Quits Bout, Sparking Furor Over Gender at Olympics
The Italian, Angela Carini, stopped fighting only 46 seconds into her matchup against Imane Khelif of Algeria, who had been barred from a women's event last year.
The Last Dinner Party, Prelude to Ecstasy review: With their decadent
Frontwoman Abigail Morris met Georgia Davies (bass) and Lizzie Maryland (vocals, guitar) shortly after starting university in 2020, and soon drafted classically trained Roberts and Aurora Nishevci ...
Organizers apologize after alleged 'Last Supper' parody ...
Delegations arrive at the Trocadero in Paris, as spectators watch French singer Philippe Katerine performing on a giant screen during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on July 26.
The Guardian
We would like to show you a description here but the site won't allow us.
Afterlife of the Party
Movie Review. On the eve of her 25 th birthday, party girl Cassie gets a wake-up call …. She dies.. But before she can enter into an eternal afterlife, Cassie is informed by Val (her sort of temporary guardian angel) that she has some "unfinished business" that she needs to attend to before the powers that be will decide if Cassie will be going "Above" or "Below."
Harold and the Purple Crayon movie review (2024)
As someone who venerates Harold and the Purple Crayon, Crockett Johnson's 1955 hymn to the power of imagination (I gift every love one's new baby with a copy of the book with a purple crayon taped inside), the idea of a film adaptation has always filled me with a certain sense of trepidation. This is due to the somewhat uneven track record of past attempts to bring the great works of ...
The Party (1968) review
The Party (1968) review. The 60s retrospectives again. Three in three days. When the physio says I should spend at least two hours every afternoon with my operated leg elevated, it's a chance to extend the series. This time it's Blake Edwards THE PARTY (linked) starring Peter Sellers from 1968. It's held to be another influential movie ...
The Party
The Party. While trying to tie his shoe, bumbling extra Hrundi V. Bakshi (Peter Sellers) unwittingly triggers explosives that destroy the set of an epic war film. The furious director tells ...
Afterlife of the Party Movie Review
Our review: Parents say ( 5 ): Kids say ( 7 ): This supernatural dramedy is predictable, but its two charismatic stars keep it from suffering as clumsy a death as its main character. Part of the problem is that the central idea of Afterlife of the Party is quite sad -- a 25-year-old dead by accident in the prime of her life -- yet the film does ...
Full recap of the 2024 Paris Olympics opening ceremony
The 2024 Paris Olympics got underway on Friday with a unique opening ceremony on the river Seine which divided opinion on a chaotic day in France. Hundreds of thousands of spectators braved heavy ...
'Coup!' review: Class warfare born of pandemic and inequity
Led by Peter Sarsgaard and Billy Magnussen, this black comedy set during the 1918 flu pandemic tells a story of class warfare within the confines of one estate.
Onyeka Onwenu: A Life Dedicated To Music, Film, Social Change
Onyeka Onwenu, the "Elegant Stallion" of Nigerian music and cinema, sadly passed away on Tuesday, July 30, 2024. The singer slumped and died shortly after performing at a birthday party in Lagos.

The Definitive Voice of Entertainment News

site categories

Stephen Dalton

Related Stories

'Soul': Film Review | Berlin 2017

THR Newsletters

More from The Hollywood Reporter

Movie Reviews

Correction Feb. 16, 2018

The Party Puts Its Politics Front and Center

Most Viewed Stories

Editor’s Picks

Most Popular

Sign In To Continue Reading

Paris’ Olympics opening was wacky and wonderful — and upset bishops. Here’s why

A 21st-century update of Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘Last Supper’

Is that a revolver in your pocket?

France sends a message

Off with their head!

Movie Review: ‘The Party’

Comments (0)

Trap 2024 Movie Reviews: Critics Share Strong First Reactions

First Reviews for Trap Movie Shared Online

Will Trap Be Another Box Office Triumph?

LATEST NEWS

Review: 'Kneecap' is an Irish hip-hop tale with an edge

The Spinoff

Pop Culture October 25, 2023

More Reading

UK Edition Change

Thank you for registering

The Last Dinner Party, Prelude to Ecstasy review: With their decadent debut, the witchy quintet delivers on the hype

Sign up to Roisin O’Connor’s free weekly newsletter Now Hear This for the inside track on all things music

Join our commenting forum

Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article

Deadpool & Wolverine: Marvel Jesus, potty mouths and bloody cameos – discuss with spoilers

What is this (very weird) fresh hell that Marvel has delivered?

The cameos, the sudden deaths, the multiversal switcheroos

Cassandra Nova and lots of little Loki-isms

A last hurrah for Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine?

Is the Marvel Cinematic Universe now forever changed, or just a bit more sweary?

Comments (…)

Notice: All forms on this website are temporarily down for maintenance. You will not be able to complete a form to request information or a resource. We apologize for any inconvenience and will reactivate the forms as soon as possible.

Afterlife of the Party

Content Caution

In Theaters

Home Release Date

Distributor

Positive Elements

Spiritual Elements

Sexual Content

Violent Content

Crude or Profane Language

Drug and Alcohol Content

Other Negative Elements

Emily Tsiao

Latest Reviews

Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie

The Firing Squad

Harold and the Purple Crayon

Weekly Reviews Straight to your Inbox!

Movie Reviews

Peter Sobczynski

Now playing

Brian Tallerico

Lady in the Lake

Robert Daniels

National Anthem

Customs Frontline

Harold and the Purple Crayon (2024)

Latest blog posts

I’ve Got A Way With Young People: 25 Years of Dick

The Unloved, Part 128: Cobweb

Shadow of the Erdtree Expands Scope of One of the Best Games of Its Era

Losers Win: Guardians of the Galaxy Turns 10

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Email not verified

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

Where to Watch

Critics Reviews