Happy New Year, Colin Burstead

2018

1 hr. 30 min.

Drama

List

86%

29 Reviews

Tomatometer

54%

Fewer than 50 Ratings

Audience Score

Colin Burstead hires a lavish country manor for his extended family to celebrate New Year. Unfortunately for Colin his position of power in the family is under serious threat from the arrival of his estranged brother David.

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Local G

I'm assuming this is how middle class film makers think the working class actually behave? This is basically an extended Christmas episode of Eastenders sadly no one improvs 'He's not worth it Ricky!' Hilariously Colin does really say 'We've all had a drink.' I accept only clever people can see the Emperor's clothes but life holds one guarantee this was publicly funded!

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

01/13/24

Full Review

isla s

I found this a slow and bleak watch. If watching family members argue among themselves and get increasingly annoyed with one another is your idea of entertainment, or otherwise a good film, then this may be worth a watch but I didn't feel the plot direction was good enough, so it really wasn't memorable to me. The ending did seem a bit better perhaps than what came before, its chaotic, not entirely unenjoyable but by that point, I'd all but switched off. I did smirk at the end though. I've been ok with some bleak films before but this particular one I didn't think a great deal of.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Ooops, reviewed wrong movie before. Ignore this review.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/14/23

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Audience Member

Ensamble family drama of what mostly artificial scenarios but there is a naturalism and the talented cast just nudge it to watchable.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

12/31/19

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Audience Member

While director Ben Wheatley has made it a craft in telling uncomfortable group stories, his latest feels like it just shy of not feeling like a whole stories with real stakes that get resolved in any capable way.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

01/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A wonderfully executed film that serves up all the gallows humour, claustrophobia, relentless demands, and casual brutality of real family life. The cast is on point for every second of this film, Ben Wheatley weaves their performances together in a way that never quite lets you get comfortable, in much the same way the characters themselves never really relax. It's a gem of a movie and if there's any justice in the world, it will become a post watershed Christmas classic.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/21/23

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Ben Wheatley

Director

Neil Maskell

Colin Burstead

Sam Riley

David Burstead

Doon Mackichan

Sandy Burstead

Hayley Squires

Gini Burstead

Mark Monero

Warren

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Paul Byrnes

Sydney Morning Herald

Wheatley appears to have hired a big house, filled it with friends and booze, giving each person a thin description of their character, then waited for the magic to happen. What results is a disjointed mess.

Rated: 2.5/5

Mar 18, 2020

Full Review

David Stratton

The Australian

[It] represents an unfortunate revival of that boring old Dogme style, which should have been laid to rest long ago and, for me, the jittery, all-over-the-place, cinematography makes the film virtually unwatchable.

Mar 13, 2020

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Harriet Fitch Little

Financial Times

Cuts like acid through the fatty, feel-good excess of the Christmas film canon.

Rated: 4/5

Feb 13, 2019

Full Review

Paul Farrell

Vague Visages

This film will undoubtedly become a key text for critical essays and university studies on post-referendum British cinema.

Dec 12, 2023

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Tori Brazier

Flickering Myth

... One of the most nuanced, entertaining comedies of the year - and that's quite something for a film that revolves around a house of Brits arguing with one another.

Rated: 4/5

Mar 25, 2021

Full Review

Stephen A. Russell

The New Daily (Australia)

Take one fractured family and deposit a fancy hired mansion with way too much booze to ring in the New Year and watch how it all falls apart.

Rated: 4/5

Aug 15, 2020

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Synopsis

Colin Burstead hires a lavish country manor for his extended family to celebrate New Year. Unfortunately for Colin his position of power in the family is under serious threat from the arrival of his estranged brother David.

Director: Ben Wheatley
Screenwriter: Ben Wheatley
Production Co: Rook Films
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English (United Kingdom)