GFF 2024: Coup!
Coup! is a breezy upstairs-downstairs social class comedy that has enjoyably exaggerated performances going for it, but this satire often goes after the wrong targets
JC Horton (Billy Magnussen) is a rich man who prides himself on being one of the good ones. He may have fled the horrors of the Spanish Flu to hide away in his luxurious island manor, but he treats his servants well, worries about women’s rights and pens firebrand columns about the plight of the working man. And if those columns should imply that he himself is one of those working men… well, call it artistic license.
His cosy life is interrupted by the arrival of a new chef named Floyd Monk (Peter Sarsgaard) whose flamboyant dress sense, drawling accent and conniving manner call to mind an early 20th-century Tiger King. With a little scheming and a lot of Southern charm, Monk soon has the whole staff demanding better pay and conditions. To his horror, Horton realises that his beloved workers have begun acting like his equals. Naturally, this ends very badly.
Coup!’s upstairs-downstairs tale of social class insurgency immediately calls to mind Parasite. Monk’s plan even involves poisoning a longstanding member of the household staff. But, while it’s a breezily paced comedy with a pair of enjoyably exaggerated performances at its centre, Austin Stark’s satire is nowhere near as precise or purposeful as Bong Joon-ho’s.
With all the time it spends railing against mask mandates, lockdowns, vegetarians and Liberal virtue signallers, Coup! feels like a right-wing rant unconvincingly disguised as an “eat the rich” tale. And not even Floyd can make such a muddled ensemble work.
Coup! had its UK premiere at Glasgow Film Festival on 8 and 9 Mar