In suburbia, it seems, everyone can hear you scream. Sally Potter’s 2018 film makes ‘Abigail ‘s Party’ look like ‘The Teletubbies’. It’s brutal.
Janet (Kristin Scott Thomas) has been appointed shadow minister for an unnamed political party (I think we’re fully aware which one, though) and is throwing a dinner party. Add her guests, rowing lesbian couple Martha (Cherry Jones) and Jinny (Emily Mortimer) coked-up banker Tom (Cillian Murphy) and the brittle combination of bitchy April (Patricia Clarkson) and her hippy husband Gottfried (Bruno Ganz) and sparks fly. That’s before Janet’s morose husband Bill (Tim Spall) drops a few of his own bombshells.
The hilarious zingers come thick and fast, skewering everything from the wellness industry, to politucs, via social media, and there’s not one likeable character among them. They’d steal the fillings out of your teeth. Yet it works, because it’s all so horrendously believable. Armando Iannucci, I think, would surely approve
The camera follows this unravelling lot like a voyeur, or member of the paparazzi (same thing, really) and the cast are all excellent,having a ball with the barbs of Potter’s script. There’s a gun, lots of vomit and burnt nibbles. And that’s just for starters. You might not want to see what’s for the main course.
Hit The North 