All My Friends Hate Me (2022)

[Blue Jam]

What an absolutely horrible experience that was. Loved it:

[ImmaculateClump]

Oh, yeah, I've seen that.

Spoiler alert

I found the ending a bit lacklustre, but the journey there was a lot of fun!

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[Mobius]

Looking forward to this, went looking for it on the weekend but couldn't find it streaming yet

[neveragain]

Oh, yeah, I've seen that.

Spoiler alert

I found the ending a bit lacklustre, but the journey there was a lot of fun!

[close]

I agree with your spoiler and also loved the film. Thought the acting and writing were excellent; horrible characters but they didn't feel like stereotypes. Also, Tom Stourton should be in more stuff.

[Blue Jam]

I absolutely loved the ending:

Spoiler alert

Pete setting himself up for a lawful wedded life of paranoia. Cue the inevitable excruciating stag do with his "friends", cringe-making best man's speech, embarrassing himself in front of the in-laws, making himself sick with worry at being a father etc

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No need for a sequel when the sequel writes itself.

[Blue Jam]

To expand on this a bit: It's directed by Andrew Gaynord who previously directed Stath Lets Flats. It stars Tom Stourton (AKA DumpGhost from Pls Like) who also co-wrote it with Tom Palmer, and there are a few other familiar faces, like Charly Clive from the excellent Pure, and Dustin Demri-Burns of Cardinal Burns fame. Despite all those comedy connections it actually reminded me far more of Peep Show and Fresh Meat, it seemed very Bain and Armstrong-like. Probably directly influenced by Peep Show in particular, with scenes such as

Spoiler alert

Pete's friends driving off before the hunting trip, bit like Foz driving off while Mark's picking up his wallet at the safari park, and Pete agonising over how many shirt buttons to keep open- two is old school, Blair on holiday

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Harry in particular was a properly menacing Legend Gary type, intimidating like like Josie's fiance in Fresh Meat. There was something nicely Fast Show about the man Pete asks for directions

Spoiler alert

Norman the groundskeeper

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as well ("...WITH AN OWL!")

Saw this at the Filmhouse in Embra and there was a Q&A with the two Toms afterwards, but I ducked out of that- not a huge fan of Q&As and although the film is a tight 94 minutes long I felt like I desperately needed to get out into the sunshine afterwards. Very claustrophobic and uncomfortable viewing, and that's a compliment.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Watched this, impressively tense, neurotic and prangy.

I suppose one thing that I don't think was entirely intentional, and makes me almost feel bad for saying is that all the middling actors involved mate this feel more relatable, I recognised most of them and had a sense of familiarity with them, but have no idea what I've seen them in, adding to the sort of ghost from the past feeling one can get when meeting people from different chapters of our lives.

[neveragain]

I take it you mean middling career-wise? Because they were all brilliant, I thought.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Yes, sorry, I didn't mean they were bad just not very well known.

[Mister Six]

Cracking little film, this. It's rare to see a thriller that has an ending that totally satisfies and that stays completely within the realm of reality. The Invitation is the only other one I've seen recently that springs to mind.

[iamcoop]

I thought this was fantastic.

Wonderfully claustrophobic, at one point I wondered whether I was going to be able to see it out to completion.

Demri-Burns in particular makes a fantastic antagonist.

My main question is really the fact that

Spoiler alert

on the whole, Pete didn't seem to be that bad of a guy. I wasn't really sure what the meaning of the story arc was - is it that he's being punished for looking down on his mates by claiming he's above all the foolish behaviour they used to indulge in? At one point I was questioning if what he was experiencing was actually happening - for example, when his friend is going to get cigarettes and says he's been shit so far, telling Claire about his engagement etc - assuming that interaction did actually happen, are we to believe Pete actually did tell Claire and just doesn't remember? Sonia tells him later he did tell her about him and Claire hooking up so I guess the angle is it's Pete himself that's a horrible twat and he's just not self-aware enough to recognise that.

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Anyway, very good film that I'm sure hardly anyone will watch (my screening had about 4 people in it).

[Sebastian Cobb]

Spoiler alert

on the whole, Pete didn't seem to be that bad of a guy. I wasn't really sure what the meaning of the story arc was - is it that he's being punished for looking down on his mates by claiming he's above all the foolish behaviour they used to indulge in? At one point I was questioning if what he was experiencing was actually happening - for example, when his friend is going to get cigarettes and says he's been shit so far, telling Claire about his engagement etc - assuming that interaction did actually happen, are we to believe Pete actually did tell Claire and just doesn't remember? Sonia tells him later he did tell her about him and Claire hooking up so I guess the angle is it's Pete himself that's a horrible twat and he's just not self-aware enough to recognise that.

[close]

Spoiler alert

I thought the Sonia bit was just that his paranoia was so rampant he wasn't able to think clearly or remember properly any more - he told told Sonia at the time they had a tryst when he returned and she noted it but wasn't bothered, but as he had the fear that slipped his mind and he built it up into this gargantuan thing.

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[Mobius]

Just watched this, bloody good movie. Weirded me out.

[Mister Six]

My main question is really the fact that

Spoiler alert

on the whole, Pete didn't seem to be that bad of a guy. I wasn't really sure what the meaning of the story arc was - is it that he's being punished for looking down on his mates by claiming he's above all the foolish behaviour they used to indulge in? At one point I was questioning if what he was experiencing was actually happening - for example, when his friend is going to get cigarettes and says he's been shit so far, telling Claire about his engagement etc - assuming that interaction did actually happen, are we to believe Pete actually did tell Claire and just doesn't remember? Sonia tells him later he did tell her about him and Claire hooking up so I guess the angle is it's Pete himself that's a horrible twat and he's just not self-aware enough to recognise that.

[close]

I think

Spoiler alert

she just assumed that he told Claire, when Claire herself just guessed it.

But she's mostly just pissed off that he reminded her of her very embarrassing first year at uni, especially on front of her husband.

The point of the film, I guess, is just that Pete is kind of self-obsessed and a bit arrogant, and misinterpreting his friends' own unhappiness/discomfort (Fig because of the first year at uni anecdote, Claire because she still pines for him, Archie because he's insecure and unhappy) as either getting in digs at him personally or still acting like dumb university students. If he actually sat down and tried to reconnect with them earlier he'd have deflated a lot of his own fears.

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[non capisco]

I liked how Archie's voice seemed modeled on one of the "Er...maaaaate...why are you having a go at Russell Howard, maaaate?" voices from that Stewart Lee routine.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I really liked that the keeper of the house was Moxie from Auf Widersehn Pet.

[lauraxsynthesis]

Peter's Non-Friends

[BritishHobo]

Thank you for this thread as I hadn't heard of the film previously, and this convinced me to see it today at my local cinema. But also I hate you for this thread as this was one of the most stressful viewing experiences of my life. I've never seen a film so perfectly nail that awful feeling that

Spoiler alert

everyone hates you and they're all talking and having fun secret jokes behind your back, and you're the only stick in the mud. That you're constantly doing the wrong thing and rubbing people up the wrong way; amplified by a new person who has rocked up and become the life of the party with ease.

[close]

Perfectly-pitched to play on every single one of my social anxieties about being left out and everyone else being better friends, and actually being a terrible twat. The repeated question of "why is everyone  being so mean?" was so simple but so powerful. I just felt sick, constantly.

I think what I really loved about it was how ambiguous it remains.

Spoiler alert

Despite it being clear that Pete is a bit of a shit who buys into his paranoia, it still feels like there was a lot of odd behaviour and gaslighting going on. The presence of Harry, along with the 'surprise', still feel like bizarre psychological games to play on someone. And so much is left unconfirmed; was there ever really a Plank, or did they make that up to fuck with Pete?

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And that it generally made an obvious set-up into something more complex than it seems. I watched thirty seconds or so of the trailer (and then switched off to avoid surprises) and thought it would be a pretty straightforward Riot Club thing of a bunch of sinister poshos preying on the one who got out, and his working class partner. All the

Spoiler alert

constant referencing of the work with refugees, and the way his anxieties about class kept getting flipped back on him because he tiptoed around them so much. I adored the moment where Fig mentions the work they do with local kids, a few scenes after Pete has lashed out in response to her asking "so what if Harry is homeless, what would be the problem with that?"

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Note-perfect ending as well, I thought. The unfolding of it, with the surprise, but most especially that last scene. Leaves you just as queasy and unsure where you stand as the rest of the film. Think it's one of those final lines that just nails the entire thing, the perfect underline.

Loved this and hated it and want to become a social hermit please. Live in a cabin, no friends thanks.

[Mister Six]

I think what I really loved about it was how ambiguous it remains.

Spoiler alert

Despite it being clear that Pete is a bit of a shit who buys into his paranoia, it still feels like there was a lot of odd behaviour and gaslighting going on. The presence of Harry, along with the 'surprise', still feel like bizarre psychological games to play on someone. And so much is left unconfirmed; was there ever really a Plank, or did they make that up to fuck with Pete?

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The most interesting and satisfying interpretation, I think, is

Spoiler alert

simply that his friends had either forgotten he could be a bit paranoid or didn't realise he had changed so much since they knew him, and that their behaviour was (in their minds) fun and appropriate. Some kind of wheels-within-wheels scheme was what I was expecting from the film, so the idea that it was all a horror of errors is much more surprising and pleasing.

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[Blue Jam]

horrible characters but they didn't feel like stereotypes

I liked how Archie's voice seemed modeled on one of the "Er...maaaaate...why are you having a go at Russell Howard, maaaate?" voices from that Stewart Lee routine.

Archie's voice reminded me of Gap Yah.

I thought the character of Archie was great. He could easily have just been a nice-but-dim posho or an obnoxious braying rah but he wasn't a stereotype, I've known people like that. People who have an expensive education and the best possible start in life and who go on to piss all that privilege up the wall- getting expelled from their expensive school for doing drugs, getting thrown out of uni for dealing, etc. Hedonistic 30-somethings who are still struggling to hold down a job and pay the bills on time and generally be a functioning adult and who rely on cheques from well-meaning but naive parents who really would do them a favour by turning off the money tap.

I did like his habit of describing every bit of top bants as "totally wiendish" as well, such a twatty little phrase.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Someone in my friendship group actually ended up going out with a posh Archie. He was a quite nationalistic Scot, but one of those posh ones that went to a public school so sounds English. It weirded me out a bit at first.

You know that joke in Peep Show where Jez says Big Suze is posh so doesn't understand not taking other people's stuff without asking? He did that to my mate's (a housemate of the person going out with him) bottle of Chivas Regal.

[Blue Jam]

Ha, I actually watched that episode last night! And I've known someone who did something similar- a friend of mine was given a bottle of some expensive vintage Champagne by her parents as a graduation present. She had been saving it for a special occasion when her posh flatmate came in late and drunk one night and fancied another drink and thought "yup, that'll do". She couldn't fathom why my friend was so upset by this, it was only a normal everyday bottle of bubbly FFS.

I also knew someone who told his parents he was too skint to buy his girlfriend a birthday present so they sent him a cheque for £500, and as soon as he saw all that lovely money in his account he couldn't resist buying a PlayStation and a load of coke. He ended up buying the girlfriend a bunch of flowers. Totally wiendish behaviour.

The most interesting and satisfying interpretation, I think, is

Spoiler alert

simply that his friends had either forgotten he could be a bit paranoid or didn't realise he had changed so much since they knew him, and that their behaviour was (in their minds) fun and appropriate. Some kind of wheels-within-wheels scheme was what I was expecting from the film, so the idea that it was all a horror of errors is much more surprising and pleasing.

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Spoiler alert

The bit in bold is how I interpreted it. When Pete phones Sonia from the house and she asks how the weekend is going he says something like "I'm not sure my friends have moved on since uni". Presumably he used to be as banterrific as them and had the same sociopathic sense of humour, which is how they became friends, but now he's moved on and is a bit embarrassed and ashamed of the man he used to be.

He also confessed to bullying a girl who went on to commit suicide, so evidently his younger self wasn't a nice person.

I also got a sense that he was trying to distance himself from his uni friends in his conversations with Sonia, trying to assure her that he wasn't really like them, honest.

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[BritishHobo]

That's true, I think I just liked that they cleverly left a few things open in a way that means you could read it a different way if you wanted -

Spoiler alert

the hoo-ha about Claire for example, or the stories about 'Plank'. You could read it that his memory isn't faulty, and they're fucking with him; but he is a prick regardless, so it is much of a muchness I suppose.

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Something else I liked, along the lines of your point about Peep Show Blue Jam, is the way that the climax felt like a sitcom ending played straight. The way you always have these embarassing moments in shows like that where due to a series of misunderstandings the protagonist ends up in a compromising position, but because it's a sitcom it doesn't really matter. The moment of "Why have you got a picture of my child on your phone?" and similar. Usually it has no impact because next week the characters reset and it's never mentioned again, but here it's far, far more destructive.

[Blue Jam]

Something else I liked, along the lines of your point about Peep Show Blue Jam, is the way that the climax felt like a sitcom ending played straight. The way you always have these embarassing moments in shows like that where due to a series of misunderstandings the protagonist ends up in a compromising position, but because it's a sitcom it doesn't really matter. The moment of "Why have you got a picture of my child on your phone?" and similar. Usually it has no impact because next week the characters reset and it's never mentioned again, but here it's far, far more destructive.

That's a really good observation!

Thank you for this thread as I hadn't heard of the film previously, and this convinced me to see it today at my local cinema. But also I hate you for this thread as this was one of the most stressful viewing experiences of my life.

Heh, I've just nominated it in that "Great films you only need to see once" thread. That's the first time I've come out of a film loving it but unsure if I ever want to see it again. I genuinely don't think I've seen anything like it before, will have to check out The Invitation next (thanks, @Mister Six!)

Good thing it was a tight 90 too, that felt like the perfect length if only because that was all I could take. If it had been any longer I might have cringed myself to death.

[neveragain]

Like iamcoop, I feel Pete wasn't that bad of a person. Or terribly obnoxious really, he just wanted to talk about the charity work. I suppose the fault lays on both sides because just as if he had listened to his 'mates' he might have better understood their behaviour, if they had listened to his refugee stuff he may have changed the subject.

[Mister Six]

Spoiler alert

The bit in bold is how I interpreted it. When Pete phones Sonia from the house and she asks how the weekend is going he says something like "I'm not sure my friends have moved on since uni". Presumably he used to be as banterrific as them and had the same sociopathic sense of humour, which is how they became friends, but now he's moved on and is a bit embarrassed and ashamed of the man he used to be.

He also confessed to bullying a girl who went on to commit suicide, so evidently his younger self wasn't a nice person.

I also got a sense that he was trying to distance himself from his uni friends in his conversations with Sonia, trying to assure her that he wasn't really like them, honest.

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Yeah, but I think he also rewrote his memories a fair bit. He seems genuinely surprised by their claim that he loved the rando nights. I also think his "they haven't moved on" remark is him deluding himself a bit because (with the exception of Archie) they are actually functional people who (IIRC) do stuff for charity on the side, and he's mistaking them trying to recreate the atmosphere of their old student days as them still being unstoppable bants machines. Even Archie wants to be better, although he doesn't know how to go about it.

I genuinely don't think I've seen anything like it before, will have to check out The Invitation next (thanks, @Mister Six!)

Cheers! Probably worth noting that despite some slight similarities, The Invitation isn't a comedy, more of a straight-up psychological thriller. I really liked it though. Like this film it's best to go in knowing as little as possible.