Wednesday 24 June 2020

Alternate Best Supporting Actor 2014: Sam Claflin in The Riot Club

Sam Claflin did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Alistair Ryle in The Riot Club.

The Riot Club I suppose can make one truly appreciate the work of Martin Scorsese particularly Goodfellas and Wolf of Wall Street. I mention those somewhat randomly in that both films are absolutely captivating despite technically depicting despicable characters. The Riot Club is like this as well about a rich college fraternity, however unlike those films the company of these men becomes intolerable almost immediately. The film technically presents them as wrong, however it doesn't present any reason to spend more than a second with them.

Sam Claflin portrays one of the young men who is part of the titular riot club. I'll admit this is one performance that I don't have too much to say about. We see Claflin in the early scenes seemingly somewhat shy and slightly disinterested by visiting his accommodations at college. This shifts a bit though when we see the men actually getting into their activities. This is as Claflin keeps the general idea but speaks with cold overtones when anything turns political. Claflin's performance largely just emphasizes this idea of Alistair as an angry and privileged patrician. Claflin displaying certainly enough venom in his performance as he goes on and on about his low view of the working class. He delivers the needed insidious quality within his work in showing Alistair to be perhaps even more despicable as the group goes about being obnoxious louts. Claflin to his credit I suppose gets off the best of the riot club boys as his performance at being horrible is effective as is intended. There is no needed attempt of sympathy for Alistair, he's horrible and Claflin makes him as such. This with the unabashed ease in his aggressive and vicious manner though all with an ease as though the whole thing is still boring him a bit. Claflin gets off the best because at least his work basically doesn't hide his horribleness with any frat boy manner, he plays it as just an evil man.This doesn't make the character real any more interesting mind you but at least Claflin delivers on the needs of the role. The role in which we just see the man glorying in his own debauchery and cruelty. This is to the point that as soon as he's against the wall for his behavior his attitude stays the same though blames everyone else for his faults. His ending being just seeing a new path to be horrible, though I'll grant Claflin for doing a properly despicable smug smile at his seemingly never failing fortunes. This isn't a great performance, but a decent enough one in a film that doesn't appear to have any particular reason for existing.

45 comments:

Luke Higham said...

Louis: Ratings and thoughts on the cast.

Well, the record's now over after 50+ requested reviews. It could've been worse I suppose.

Emi Grant said...

Luke: At least he got a cool pic.

Luke Higham said...

Emi: Yeah. :)

Bryan L. said...

Luke: You had a great run. Don’t ever forget that :)

Plus, mine ended before it could even start xD

Luke Higham said...

Rating aside, I don't regret requesting him as it's unlikely he pushed someone really deserving out of the lineup.

Luke Higham said...

Bryan: Hopefully it'll just be a one-off. :)

Emi Grant said...

I feel mine was a couple of "fizzle bombers" away from ending before even starting as well. 50+ requests above 4 is nothing to scoff at.

Emi Grant said...

Louis: Since Baby Driver has been making news for all the wrong reasons, I'm wondering what would be your choices for an alternate cast. (Same year, same director)

Luke Higham said...

Emi Grant: West Side Story is going to be hit so badly by this.

Bryan L. said...

Emi: Alden Ehrenreich for the title role definitely.

Luke: So do I :) *Crosses fingers*

Robert MacFarlane said...

Joe Keery would have been an AWESOME Baby, in hindsight.

Michael McCarthy said...

Yeah this is definitely one I won’t be watching a second time. As a member of a college fraternity that actively condemns and fights against hazing, movies like this that reinforce that image in anything other than an unambiguously negative light leave a horrible taste in my mouth.

That mugging scene early on was a horrible inclusion as well, as it seemed like it was trying to convey something along the lines of “Well Alistair’s a bad guy for sure, but you can kiiiiiinda see where he’s coming from...right?” I’m sorry but no one needs to see that.

Michael Patison said...

Haven't seen this, and it's fallen quite a ways down my list now, but I've found Claflin's best performance so far to be in Their Finest. Perhaps slight, but certainly appropriately charming and suave with some subtler notes as well.

Calvin Law said...

Also on a similar note to this film I suppose, fuck Ansel Elgort.

Calvin Law said...


Claflin’s character in this went to my school and I have to say watching this on a school trip was a good wake up call for those of us who picked up on it to be aware and not go down that route of being a nasty horrible public school cunt. Unfortunately I also agree that the awful approach of the film pretty much obfuscates any of that and agreed with Michael M on that unnecessary scene.

John Smith said...

Louis, have you seen 'I Know This Much Is True'? I really Believe Rufallo gives an all time great performance.

John Smith said...

Louis and everyone else thoughts on trailer for 'Waiting For The Barbarians'

Tahmeed Chowdhury said...

Louis: Cobra Kai Season 3 will be on Netflix instead of Youtube Red.

houndtang said...

With Alice Englert as his girlfriend.

RatedRStar said...

I do wonder what happens to West Side Story now?

Tim said...

thoughts on the cinematography of 2005 King Kong?

Luke Higham said...

RatedRStar: Unless the studio mandates large scale reshoots with a replacement, I think Spielberg will push ahead.

Calvin Law said...

Tahmeed: Psyche!!

Tim said...

i recently watched The Gift (2000, Sam Raimi) and honestly, i think playing that water corpse might be Katie Holmes' best Performance ever, even though that is still not saying much.
The movie itself started out okay, but the ending is really unsatisfying.

Blanchett: 4.5/5
Kinnear: 3
Ribisi: 3.5
Simmons: 2.5
Reeves: 2.5/3
Swank: 2 (really distractingly cast)

Luke Higham said...

Okay, I really over-exaggerated but my record ended after 31 4+ instead of 50+ and I've made 47 requests overall so far.

Luke Higham said...

I saw the Waiting For The Barbarians trailer and I hope it's rather better than what the crtical reception's telling us.

Louis Morgan said...

Luke:

Irons - 2(Unfortunately from what I've seen so far the apple does fall quite a bit from the tree as he lacks his father's talent. He certainly tries hard though, but like in the wife, here that is part of the problem. His performance is one that so wants to force every emotion that it feels just like that, a whole lot of posturing and unfortunately you don't really get anything out of it. He needs to be the heart, but Irons doesn't mine anything depth.)

Booth - 1.5(I suppose the only time he doesn't come off as extremely artificial is when he's painted over. This as again his presence seems to suck the life out of the screen in my view. To be fair his character is intended to be shallow, but Claflin showed that there is away to do this while being moderately compelling. No such case of it here.)

Findlay & Brown - 3(Both are effective at least in bringing a proper humanity as the victims of the obnoxious club.)

Grainger - 3(She's good in creating an attempt a real chemistry with Irons, though I don't think he quite gets it. She's effective though as well in just bringing a quiet honesty to the role that is one of the few tolerable elements of the film.)

Dormer - 3.5(For me her performance was easily the best part of the film as the character technically would be viewed as the lowest class most easily dresses down the obnoxious posh twits. Dormer is terrific though in her few minutes in bringing such a power in her self and determination in every line of setting it up quiet clearly where her character stands.)

Emi & Luke:

If this was 2017 the he said/she said accusation probably would be enough, however unless more people/evidence comes forward I imagine there probably won't be a major shift yet, though I think he'll get cast less in general going forward anyways.

Emi:

I'll echo Robert's choices of Keery as Baby and John Goodman as Doc.

John Smith:

Rylance looks potentially great, Depp I'm not sure about as usual for latter day Depp. The film looks like it has the potential in subject matter at the very least, I believe Omar, whose seen it, was fairly positive on it, so I'm definitely looking forward to it.

Tahmeed:

Good, that'll save me the time doing another free 30 day trial for YouTube premium.

Luke Higham said...

Louis: Oh believe me, I'm against trial by media especially after Depp/Heard.

Luke Higham said...

Louis: Since you seem to like Dormer quite alot, I think you'll really, really like her Anne Boleyn in The Tudors.

Bryan L. said...

Louis: Your thoughts on the production design for Portrait of a Lady on Fire? I saw it recently and I actually liked it more than I was expecting.

Anonymous said...

Luke, who's your favourite TV composer.

Luke Higham said...

My favourite 3 are:
Trevor Morris
Ramin Djawadi
Martin Phipps

Calvin Law said...

On the note of TV music I’m watching The Last Airbender series now and the music in that is FANTASTIC.

Robert MacFarlane said...

My guess on the Elgort debacle: There's going to be a waiting period from the studio/Spielberg in hopes that it blows over. Then when it's announced to go ahead as planned, the shit will hit the fan. Massive blowback. Damaged credibility all around. Then, delay and reshoot.

My other guess is more girls are going to come forward at some point. The account was pretty detailed and these usually aren't isolated incidents.

Matt Mustin said...

If we're talking about TV music, the original Fullmetal Alchemist has some of the best I've ever heard.

Tahmeed Chowdhury said...

To add one more to the list, the music for Jojo's Bizarre Adventure (which I've gotten into recently) is fantastic.

Michael Patison said...

TV composers (I've only listed those who exclusively or primarily write for TV):
Mike Post (his sound just is late 70s to early 90s TV in the US)
Ramin Djawadi
Snuffy Walden
Bear McCreary
Martin Phipps
John Lunn
Jeff Beal

I haven't watched enough of people like Trevor Morris or Sean Callery to know how much I like them.

Luke Higham said...

Michael: I really like Jeff Beal's work on Rome.

Michael Patison said...

Also Basil Poledouris gets in simply on the strength of his work on Lonesome Dove

Michael Patison said...

Luke: Totally agree. To be completely honest, I've only seen the first 5 episodes or so of Rome, but the strength of that, along with its differentiability from his work on House of Cards (which outside of Corey Stoll is my favorite part of the series) is enough for me.

Luke Higham said...

Michael: Have you ever seen The Virgin Queen. Phipps' work is utterly amazing. Helps that I love the Medieval Baebes (They also worked on Victoria).

Anonymous said...

Luke, your thoughts on Kevin McKidd in Rome

Louis Morgan said...

Tim:

Andrew Lensnie's work on King Kong for me is combination of the strengths of LOTR with the signs of the eventual pitfalls of the Hobbit. This is as there are definitely some beautiful shots, with a particularly effective epic scope. There is too though a great reliance on the "safety" of digital effects, where his work in LOTR while wasn't always possible lighting wise often was plausible. He attempted to make everything look real even when all digital, or largely so. In Kong, though not to the extent of the hobbit, the sort of cheat in the use of it became more obvious and in turn the slight cracks within. For example a lot of the basic New York City work in particularly looks false, which feels very odd given people had been making period New York films for years before CGI. There is a lot of great work to be sure, but for me sort of the unfortunate path the collaboration took.

Luke:

I feel I should note I was referring more to the public perception of the issue currently rather than specifically my own views regarding the matter.

Bryan:

It's gorgeous production design, the paintings alone are enough to note how fantastic the work is. This just though with a beautiful work across the board that manages a lived in quality, while still seeming as though it is the interiors of any grand painting. This is of course amplified by the amazing cinematography, but the design alone is essential in sort of crafting the "portraits" of the film's shots.

Michael Patison said...

Luke: I have not seen The Virgin Queen, but Phipps' theme for Victoria is outstanding.

Luke Higham said...

Anonymous: He's great, I love the bromance he has with Ray Stevenson and his scenes of sheer intensity (especially one where he kills a gang leader) are fantastic.