Good evening, House of Madness occupants:
How many times have you sung along to a song, only to realize later that you've been fucking up the lyrics the entire time? As you pull up to a red light confidently bellowing out what you think are the lyrics to what's blasting on the radio, you soon realize that Tom Cochrane is singing "Lunatic Fringe" and not in fact imploring you to "Learn to take French". Sound stupid? I can tell a story of a friend singing "Gustoppio" over and over with the certainty of a seasoned veteran, only to pull off his headphones and find out he was listening to "Start Me Up". Sometimes when we think we understand what's going on, we're later confronted with something completely different, leaving ourselves feeling embarrassed and ashamed. I feel I may have missed the mark with "All My Friends Hate Me", but I'll do my best to interpret my take on the film for you.
Pete (Tom Stourton) sets off to celebrate his birthday at his friend George's (Joshua McGuire) lavish estate with his former university pals Fig (Georgina Campbell), Archie (Graham Dickson) and his old flame Claire (Antonia Clarke) while his girlfriend Sonia (Charly Clive) stays behind so he can reminisce with his old pals. The second Pete arrives, however, things seem 'off' and the arrival of stranger Harry (Dustin-Demri-Burns) certainly isn't helping with his over-the-top personality and condescending behaviour. It seems everything Pete says or does gets construed into something he didn't mean, someone overhears something they weren't meant to overhear, or people simply ignore him altogether. As the film progresses towards his big 'surprise', Pete feels more and more alienated to the point where he's certain everyone has an agenda, and some kind of personal vendetta against him. Just when Pete thinks he's moved past it all and can finally move forward, he's met with a final sentence of "You really need to learn how to take a joke" which sends him into another internal frenzy of second guessing himself.
Now, as a massive advocator of mental health, I feel I resonated with many aspects of this film. As a chronic sufferer of social anxiety myself, everything happening onscreen I've experienced myself; from the paranoia of what everyone thinks about me, to the level of embarrassment I've created for myself deriving from absolutely nothing. Add the most off the wall scenarios you can think of, and people with social issues will tell you they've thought of them all and then some. So, while I think I 'got' the message "AMFHM" was trying to deliver, I can't be 100% certain because in the film the line between reality and self manifested catastrophe is very fine. If I'm wrong that's ok, at least I'm not asking people to Gustoppio while they learn to take French.
Madness Meter: 6.3/10
NB
