Manufactured Rage: “The Riot Club” Movie Night Review
The Riot Club is a 2014 British film directed by Lone Scherfig and was adapted from the 2010 play authored by Laura Wade entitled Posh. The story revolves around ten young college students who are currently studying at the prestigious University of Oxford. These young men belong to a group called “The Riot Club” which was based on the life and death of the 17th century Lord Ryot who was known for being a legendary philanderer, debonair, and of course, debaucher. Only people within the same social and economic stratification are allowed to be part of the club.
It goes without saying then that they aren’t the typical lads you see walking around British campuses every day. Every one of them hails from an elite family who belongs to the top 6% of the British society. These young men are born to be great and they are meant to be “seated behind very important desks” someday. They’re the ones to control the fate of an economy and perhaps an entire country in the future.
The film, however, deviates from showing the positive effects of having these beautiful boys in the society (well, aside from looking cute naked or in suits). It delves and explores the deep and dark lifestyle of each of them, hence the tagline: Filthy. Rich. Spoiled. Rotten. When the members were down to 8, they had to scout for two other members from the freshmen. This is where Alistair Ryle (played by Sam Claflin) and Miles Richards (played by Max Irons) come into picture. I guess you could say that they’re just a fraternity except that most of them are hands-down handsome and they are rich beyond the comprehension of a Third World-er like me.
So, we've got Miles Richards (protagonist), Alistair Ryle (antagonist), and the following characters:
Harry Villiers (played by Douglas Booth) - senior student, the most charming among the boys, very wealthy, good at fencing, shooting, and drinking
James Leighton-Masters (played by Freddie Fox) - outgoing president of the club, likes corporate finances very much
Hugo Fraser-Tyrwhitt (played by Sam Reid) - older student, ridiculously good looking, sexy husky voice, gay and has hots for Miles Richards
Dimitri Mitropoulos (played by Ben Schnetzer) - possibly the financier of the club, of Greek heritage, teased as being a nouveau riche, frenemies with Guy Bellingfield
Guy Bellingfield (played by Matthew Beard) - junior student, eyes the presidential position of the club, frenemies with Dimitri Mitropoulos
George Balfour (played by Jack Farthing) - loves the country side and anything related to farming, rich but the least arrogant, reminds me of Downton Abbey
Toby Maitland (played by Olly Alexander) - studied in Eton, close friendship with Ed Montgomery, quite effeminate, curls reminiscent of J. Timberlake’s noodle hair era
Ed Montgomery (played by Josh O'Connor) - studied in Eton, quite effeminate, close friendship with Toby Maitland, looks a bit like Nick Jonas
Now, at first, I thought, “what else could this little shits do aside from sucking Mum and Dad’s money?” Well, it turns out they can do anything they please — hiring a prostitute to do ALL of them, almost raping another girl, wrecking a pub-restaurant, and thrashing the owner in the process. All the while thinking that they can get away with it (actually, with anything) because they pay generously. A night of heavy drinking-cum-cocaine sniffing turns into an almost murderous event.
So, it’s already established that everyone is rich and spoiled, right? But to make things worse, Alistair Ryle just happens to be one of those rich kids who is super unaware of his freaking privileges. He abhors the poor for being poor and for depending on the taxes of the rich folks: "[I] Don’t understand why it doesn’t all just get handed to them.“
During their general assembly dinner, while some of the boys were busy dissing the wine quality because they weren’t expensive enough, Alistair started talking about politics, inducing the rest of the club with inexplicable rage saying,
"We apologize. We apologize for being who we are. We pretend we're the same, we do it to ourselves, yeah? We need to stop apologizing. 'Cause it's only going to get worse."
And I was like — It's only going to get worse, really?! Are you fucking kidding me?! What do you young shits know about the struggles of surviving when everything is being handed down to y’all?! Undeniably, these boys are now full of political horseshit.
Thanks a lot, Alistair.
After beating the restaurant owner almost to his demise, Miles Richards (the most beautiful boy but also the most helpless one) finally finds the courage to stand up to his bros and calls an ambulance. They all end up in jail for the rest of the night, but of course they were bailed out the next morning. While the nine of them go back to Oxford, Miles went to the hospital where the owner was admitted to. He found out that he had a collapsed lung, blood clot in his brain, two broken ribs, collar bone, several fingers, and nose, ruptured spleen, internal bleeding, and the doctors were still trying to revive his vision on his left eye. And all this because of the stupid, fake rage brought by the stupid, spoiled boys of The Riot Club. I guess this is the huge red flag that says you need to reevaluate the company you keep.
Now these boys were shaken up and they were suddenly aware that all these chaos can send their bright future down the drain. So they met and discussed possible scenarios where they can justify beating the owner. This is perhaps the point where Miles realized that these guys are just a bunch of privileged jerks. They believe they deserve to get whatever they want because they are simply entitled to them. But when shit hits the fan, they’re the ones who immediately call Mum and Dad’s lawyer friends.
The next day, Alistair was summoned by the police because they found traces of him on the bat he used to beat the old restaurant owner with. The movie closes with Alistair talking to Jeremy, a lawyer, and one of the presidents of The Riot Club during his time at Oxford. It was clear that he’s going to be kicked out of the University (but definitely not out of the club). The closing line, “People like us don’t make mistakes, do we?”, reminds me so much of the driving force behind the TV series Mr. Robot that focuses on the emancipation of the masses from the hands of “the top 1% of the top 1%, the guys that play God without permission”.
After the meeting, we see Alistair walking outside while Adeste Fideles is being played by the carolers. The end of the film left its viewers with a lot of questions hanging — Will justice be served properly? Is he going to kill The Riot Club members? While I didn’t feel good because I didn’t see Alistair suffer and be accountable for his mistakes (good God, how badly I wanted to see this), the film’s open-endedness is where it gets its strength. You either believe that the natural order of things will make him pay for what he has done or you conclude that it is just how our society works, that money is your one and only true savior.
Overall, The Riot Club is a movie that delivers strong messages about our society. It demystifies the inner workings of the young minds belonging to century-old organizations concentrated with wealth and power. It shows the idiosyncrasies continuously fostered from generation to generation. While the film poses a problem and not offer any solution, it encourages its watchers to rethink and reevaluate their convictions on certain truths in life.
