London, 1997; the British music industry is on a winning streak. Britpop bands Blur, Oasis, Supergrass, and The Verve rule the airwaves and Cool Britannia is in full swing. Psychopathic twenty-seven-year-old A&R man Steven Stelfox (Nicholas Hoult) is slashing and burning his way through the music business, a world where 'no one knows anything' and where careers are made and broken by chance and the fickle tastes of the general public. Fuelled by greed, ambition and inhuman quantities of drugs, Stelfox lives the dream, as he searches for his next hit record. But as the hits dry up and the industry begins to change, Stelfox takes the concept of “killer tunes” to a murderous new level in a desperate attempt to salvage his career.
On 12 February 2014, Nicholas Hoult joined the cast of the film to play lead role as (A&R) agent Steven Stelfox.[5] On 3 March 2014, Jim Piddock joined the film's cast to play Derek Sommers, the managing director of the record label.[6] The film was scored by Junkie XL.[7]
The film received mixed to negative reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 23% based on reviews from 60 critics, with an average rating of 4.50/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Kill Your Friends takes futile stabs at black comedy, all strangled by a glut of tonal jumbles, bad casting, and unremittingly unlikable characters."[8]OnMetacritic it has a score of 45% based on reviews from 19 critics "indicating mixed or average reviews".[9]
Andy Webster of The New York Times called it "A richly satisfying poison-pen letter to the music industry."[10]
Stephen Dalton of The Hollywood Reporter wrote: "Kill Your Friends remixes a brutally funny novel into an entertaining if somewhat familiar big-screen tale of amoral, chemically-fuelled decadence."[11]
Andrew Barker of Varietywrote: "The film has its razor-sharp grace notes and a seductive stylishness, neither of which can override its relentlessly adolescent worldview."[12]
