X
- 2018
- R
- Roadside Attractions
- 1 h 11 m
- 2018
- R
- Roadside Attractions
- 1 h 11 m
Summary Janet (Kristin Scott Thomas) is hosting an intimate gathering of friends in her London home to celebrate her political ascension, while her husband, Bill (Timothy Spall), seems preoccupied. Janet’s acerbic best friend, April (Patricia Clarkson), arrives and others follow, some with their own dramatic news to share, but an announcement by...
Directed By: Sally Potter
Written By: Walter Donohue, Sally Potter
- 2018
- R
- Roadside Attractions
- 1 h 11 m
- 2018
- R
- Roadside Attractions
- 1 h 11 m
The Party
73
6.2
Where to Watch
Summary Janet (Kristin Scott Thomas) is hosting an intimate gathering of friends in her London home to celebrate her political ascension, while her husband, Bill (Timothy Spall), seems preoccupied. Janet’s acerbic best friend, April (Patricia Clarkson), arrives and others follow, some with their own dramatic news to share, but an announcement by...
Directed By: Sally Potter
Written By: Walter Donohue, Sally Potter
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 31 Critic Reviews
73
94% Positive
29 Reviews
29 Reviews
6% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 31 Critic Reviews
73
94% Positive
29 Reviews
29 Reviews
6% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
With its claustrophobic unity of time and place, the disintegrating party feels highly theatrical and, of various classic screen adaptations from the stage, this wonderfully performed black-and-white film recalls in particular Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf." Yet also, Potter's comic dissection of the London intelligentsia's personal and political angst is completely of the moment.
The Party is breathlessly well shot — and, even better, in lustrous black and white. The look conveys an unspoken message: Even playing fools, these actors are pure class.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 37 User Ratings
6.2
54% Positive
20 Ratings
20 Ratings
30% Mixed
11 Ratings
11 Ratings
16% Negative
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 37 User Ratings
6.2
54% Positive
20 Ratings
20 Ratings
30% Mixed
11 Ratings
11 Ratings
16% Negative
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
The Party is a beautifully acted contemporary ensemble comedy/farce with a smart script that ends with a wonderful and very funny twist. The direction is very clever and keeps the comedy moving along at high speed even though most of the action takes place in two small rooms and only branches out occasionally to the backyard and the bathroom. I won’t tell you why since it will spoil the fun. Great work from everyone (the actors were obviously enjoying themselves) and from the director Sally Potter who kept things lively and hilarious.
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This is a tight little drama, a raging black comedy for sure, but there's so much more to it. Rest assured you'll savor the skewering of certain members of the cast, and this alone makes it worth the price of admission. But as to the more subtle messages, you might have to see it twice just to convince yourself that someone had the guts enough to put it out there so fearlessly. If you saw Ginger & Rosa, you probably know what I'm talking about. Either way, throw yourself into the fire.
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Slight and self-contained, it won’t go down in cinema history as anything but, perhaps, the most purely fun film ever made by peculiar British experimentalist Sally Potter.
The plot is sparse. This is about acting, dialogue, and character interaction, not narrative.
The laughs hurt so good, and the guests at this shindig treat each other like dartboards for 71 minutes. Yes, that's short for a movie, but your nerves couldn’t take more.
A brisk, black-and-white, worst-possible-case dinner party scenario overflowing with good actors and bad vibes.
The Party is a brittle, unfunny attempt at comedy that features some very fine actors and a lot of empty chatter.
A dinner party that goes horribly, horribly wrong. The Party is a gem. The script is sharp, fast paced with plenty of laugh out loud moments. Written and directed by Sally Potter, this desperately tragic story is wrapped in laughs that just keep on coming. With a running time of only 71 minutes it wastes absolutely no time reeling you in. You’re immediately brought into this story that unveils everything it has to only when it has to. Set in a single location, filled with a terrific cast. Kristin Scott Thomas, Timothy Spall and Cillian Murphy are superb. Patricia Clarkson had me in stitches. A wonderfully simple idea you can’t not enjoy The Party.
From the trailer I was sold but The Party certainly exceeded my expectations. Immensely entertaining and highly recommended, find a cinema showing it, sit back and enjoy.
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It starts very slow, the music feels like a lullaby, even the ringtones are boring. Even Cillian Murphy doing drugs didn't liven it up, he honestly looks like he wandered off another movie, one i would have liked to see. Here, he just emphasizes that its a retirement home. I made it 20 minutes, definitely not the audience for this movie.
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This film is in black and white, so that already suggests a level of pretentiousness. Ironically, so was the film version of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and this effort aspires to that sort of soiree. Sadly, it never comes close to Woolf's brilliant dialogue and biting interactions. There's a fine cast, including Kristin Scott Thomas, Patricia Clarkson, Cherry Jones, Emily Mortimer and Cillian Murphy. They gather for a celebratory dinner, but anxiety hangs over every interaction. Unfortunately, so does the ponderous dialogue that destroys any hope of compelling drama. There are some interesting situations that are skillfully handled by the actors, but the whole thing is just leaden with affected, hollow interactions. The best thing I can say about this movie is that it's only 71 minutes, which still felt too long.
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A movie full of obnoxious people who fight for no reason. Everyone's personality is turned up to 11, to try to make things interesting I guess, but it just makes things seem so unrealistic. I guess if everyone's always pissed off and insulting each other for no reason, that's supposed to be dramatic or funny?
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The movie starts with Janet (Kristin Scott Thomas) opening the door and pointing a gun at one of her unseen guests. The guests are friends of her and her husband Bill (Timothy Spall) who are celebrating Janet’s peak as a career politician.
April (Patricia Clarkson), Janet’s best friend, has a sharp tongue which is always in use, has come with her boyfriend Gottfried (Bruno Ganz), a life coach, who she plans to break up with. Martha, (Cherry Jones) a feminist college professor, arrives at the party with her much younger lover Jinny (Emily Mortimer) who informs Martha that she pregnant, with triplets. Tom (Cillian Murphy), a coke sniffing, gun carrying banker, arrives apologizing for his wife, who works for and with Janet, explaining that she is running late and will there soon.
For the next hour, we watch and hear couples talking about politics, cheating, life, children and what each accomplished or didn’t and how they think about all things. In what is supposedly a farce and comedy, except for Clarkson’s bitter humor and Murphy’s way over the top acting there really isn’t too much to this movie except I did not see the ending, the last line, coming.
This is the second film in a week, the other being “1945”, photographed in black and white, with the latter running 91 minutes and “The Party” 71 minutes and neither are worth the time.
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Production Company
Great Point Media,
Adventure Pictures,
Oxwich Media,
Copenhagen Film Fund
Release Date Feb 16, 2018
Duration 1 h 11 m
Rating R
Tagline A comedy of tragic proportions.
Awards
Berlin International Film Festival
• 1 Win & 2 Nominations
Valladolid International Film Festival
• 1 Win & 2 Nominations
National Film Awards, UK
• 2 Nominations
