Can you like a movie without really liking any of the characters in it? If you can, you might just get a kick out of this off-center story about depraved Oxford University students and a strange guy (Barry Keoghan) who wants to fit into the group and is willing to do anything to quench his thirst for sex, power and acceptance – not necessarily in that order.
Keoghan is an outsider attending the prestigious University on scholarship and financial assistance. In other words, he’s not an upper crust kid like the students’ circle he insinuates himself into. I’m reluctant to go much further except to say that when he’s invited to stay for the summer in the English mansion with his crush and his crush’s parents, the fun starts.
The supporting cast shines with the wealthy parents of the estate (Rosamund Pike and Richard E. Grant) playing their parts for smiles, if not laughs. The movie has something to say about the class system and how the rich sometimes take in a lower rung person to stay as kind of a pet.
If you don’t mind seeing someone drink his crush’s bathwater or dry-humping a fresh grave, you will appreciate the more subtle, possibly sinister, elements of a film that is part thriller, sprinkled with a touch of satire and a pinch of comedy.
