All My Friends Hate Me

[MichaelB]

The deliciously dark new British comedy about social paranoia, ALL MY FRIENDS HATE ME (2021) follows its forthcoming UK-wide cinema run from 10 June with a Blu-ray/DVD Dual Format Edition release.

...which is on 29 August.

[Mr Sausage]

An excruciating experience in social anxiety, passive aggression, paranoia, and every other kind of discomfort. It reminded me of The Invitation, another movie about a gathering of old friends and lovers where nothing is outwardly wrong, but a low key menace seems to pervade every interaction, to the point where the main character begins to question his sanity. The Invitation was outwardly a much heavier film, touching on grief and trauma. All My Friends Hate Me is more innocuous on the surface--just some old University friends getting together to celebrate the birthday of the one in their group who was always the life of the party. Yet that old party guy, now an aid worker in a refugee camp, just can't seem to connect to his old friends, finds himself being accused of small improprieties, suffers small, unaccountable impolitenesses, feels somehow on the outside of every group interaction, and on and on as a suffocating feeling of disquiet grows. It's excruciating; anyone who suffers the least amount of social anxiety will find this all triggering.

For someone like me who finds, for instance, cringe comedy hard to endure, this movie was not enjoyable in a traditional sense. I had to pause constantly to get a break from my own second hand embarrassment and all the stress it produced. There's a lot here designed to make you wince and grit your teeth. But I was nevertheless hooked; I very much wanted to discover what was motivating all this discomfort, if it was a Gaslight scenario or truly all in the main character's head. A movie like this, the reveal can go either way, and there's always a element of coincidence necessary to keep the cogs moving--maybe too much, in this case. I can't say, ultimately, if the ambiguities of the ending are productive or obscuring. There's a hesitant catharsis that isn't redeemed by a real conclusion. The story stops more than ends. But the final scene effectively summarizes a running theme in the movie of the cruelty of humour, of the way jokes can wound and exclude without recourse, because they are after all just jokes, lighten up. The ending, tho' it risks being unsatisfying due to a significant ellipsis, finds a perfect not to end on, giving the most weighted and ugly example of the 'humour' the movie traffics in.

Much hinges on whether it's the group that's changed, or the lead, and while we get no explicit answer, my own suspicion is that...

SpoilerShow

...it's the lead who's changed and for the better, but without realizing it. I think the group in general was fond of a malicious, exclusionary type of humour designed to provoke misery. The lead's memories of those years seem imprecise, even hazy, so I'd guess he doesn't fully remember the kind of ugly mockery and prankishness and he and the others got up to. The story about tormenting the girl to suicide as a 15-year-old suggests the kind of malicious pranks he found funny, and his sense of being 'skippy', or the skipper, ie. the group's leader, also suggests he was the ringleader of a lot of the vicious mockery, tho' he disclaims some of these past antics now (but there's a streak of dishonesty to him I don't think he recognizes). The offhand comments from the others that he was an old reprobate, or they'd hoped he'd take of therapy, also suggests something maybe off the rails or hysterical about his old behaviour, too, an extremity that was masking or compensating for something, some unhappiness. My guess: he unknowingly outgrew his own cruel humour and now, not seeing the change in himself, can't recognize the group's actions for what they are and feels---rightly--that he is the victim of it. Since he can't participate or understand, he can only endure. One more cruelty awaits, an awful joke by his fiance that implies he's in for a lot more torment in the future. Never has a smile of relief been so contextually hollow.

[MichaelB]

Full specs announced:

ALL MY FRIENDS HATE ME
Directed by Andrew Gaynord
Written by Tom Palmer & Tom Stourton

BFI Blu-ray/DVD release and digital release exclusively on BFI Player Subscription on 29 August 2022

See the trailer here


Following its release in cinemas UK-wide in June 2022, the BFI now brings All My Friends Hate Me, the deliciously dark new comedy about social paranoia, to Blu-ray/DVD on 29 August, with a simultaneous digital release exclusively on BFI Player Subscription. With a cast of rising British talent and directed by Andrew Gaynord (Stath Lets Flats), All My Friends Hate Me features a razor-sharp script by Tom Palmer and Tom Stourton. Special features include an audio commentary, a filmed interview with the writers, a short film made by the writers and director and deleted scenes.

Pete (Tom Stourton) is ready to leave behind his youthful indulgences and settle down with his girlfriend, Sonia (Charly Clive). When his old university friends invite him to celebrate his birthday at a country-house weekend, he finds their immature ways haven’t changed but is baffled by their spontaneous invitation to a feral stranger from the local pub to join them. With the atmosphere turning from tense to terrifying to surreal, Pete reaches breaking point. Is he being punished? Or is he just part of a sick joke?

Other cast members are Georgina Campbell, Antonia Clarke, Joshua McGuire, Dustin Demri-Burns, Graham Dickinson, Kieran Hodgson and Christopher Fairbank. The film had its UK premiere at the BFI London Film Festival 2021 and had a US release earlier this year.

Special features
• Presented in High Definition
• Audio commentary by writers Tom Palmer and Tom Stourton and director Andrew Gaynord
• All My Friends Hate Me Q&A (2022, 26 mins): writers Tom Palmer and Tom Stourton talk to film journalist Leigh Singer
• Deleted scenes (2018, 7 mins): two scenes that were removed or significantly altered in the final cut
• The Soho Diaries (2013, 4 mins): a short film by Tom Palmer, Tom Stourton and Andrew Gaynord
• All My Friends Hate Me Press Junket Goes Wrong (2022, 3 mins): comedian Chris Bliss interviews Tom Stourton and Antonia Clarke
• Gallery including an early script, storyboard and production notes
• Trailer
• ***First pressing only*** Illustrated booklet featuring a Writers’ Statement and Director’s Statement, essays by Johnny Mains and Paul Ridd, credits and notes on the special features

Product details
RRP: £19.99 / Cat. no. BFIB1470 / 15
UK / 2021 / colour / 94 mins / English language with optional subtitles for the Deaf and partial hearing / audio description / original aspect ratio 2.37:1 // BD50: 1080p, 24fps, 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio (48kHz/24-bit) and 2.0 LPCM stereo audio DVD9: PAL, 25fps, Dolby Digital 5.1 (448kbps) and 2.0 stereo audio (320kbps)