All my friends hate me

Have you ever been to a party and felt like nobody wants you? She thought about a past conversation and realized she sounded like a a bit of an asshole? She looked at the people around him and wondered why he was dating them. So man, that’s it all my friends hate me the movie for you

It is the cinematic embodiment of social anxiety. After a hilarious horror movie-style intertitle, a long drive and several odd encounters with the locals, Pete (Tom Stourton, also co-writer and producer) who identifies as a good guy, arrives at a big house of birthday rip-off campaign with a close-knit group of friends he hadn’t seen in years. There’s George (Joshua McGuire), whose father owns the mansion they are in; his wife Fig (Georgina Campbell); the elegant party-goer Archie (Graham Dickson); old flame Claire (Antonia Clarke); and Harry (Dustin Demri-Burns), a complete stranger the gang brings from the pub who immediately makes Pete uncomfortable.

As the weekend progresses, Pete goes through an increasingly difficult time. The gang teases him, criticizes his stories, puts him in awkward situations and blames him for not appreciating them, and tensions arise over political and class differences. The genius of Stourton’s script and co-writer Tom Palmer is that with every excruciating thing Pete experiences, you’re not as sure as he is if he or his friends are the villains. Whenever they seem mean or aloof, Pete talks endlessly about his valuable work in a refugee camp and you start to think that maybe they really hate him because you do too, just a little bit.

Primarily a comedy, the humor is thick and fast-paced, but the elements of horror, drama and suspense are expertly dispersed, delivered with maximum impact. The supporting ensemble is strong, each hateful and likeable in their own way despite a pretty poor tie, and Charly Clive really changes the game as Pete’s girlfriend Sonia when she’s late for the party, creating a sense of security for Pete. while it remains. suitably illegible. But Stourton is the star, perfectly blending anxious unease with childish ostentation and a kind of enlightened elitism, while still being absolutely compelling as a vehicle for audience discomfort.

In addition to perfectly capturing how awful it would be to feel left out at your own birthday party, all my friends hate me draws on broader themes about the difficulty of maintaining relationships as you age: feeling like you’ve outgrown your friendships, trying and failing to catch up with the good old days, reconciling who you were in your youth with who you are now. Incredibly agile in his storytelling, he manages to completely encapsulate millennial neuroticism, laughter embarrassment, and unique character study into a clever, brilliantly British and genre-rich package.