Every time I think I am tired of “Eat the Rich” type movies, I am almost immediately reminded of why I never think that. The latest reminder to me was the 2024 black comedy thriller simply titled “Coup!” The film, directed by Austin Stark, is a clever, fun, and attitude-filled romp that examines ideas of class conflict, political identity, and the deception that can often be found therein. The film succeeds largely due to the engrossing performances of the main cast as well as having a very competent director and script. Pacing issues and a lack of narrative daring prevent this film from being something truly unique. Albeit, that is not to say that the message the film is trying to deliver is irrelevant or that film fails in its delivery of its message.
The film, set during the influenza epidemic of 1918, follows upper class Progressive journalist J.C. Horton, played by Billy Magnussen, as he and his family sequester themselves at an island mansion during the outbreak of influenza. During this period of quarantine, international unrest, and political two-facedness, the Horton family’s newly-hired cook Floyd Monk (played by Peter Sarsgaard) arrives. With him, he brings unrest as he begins to point out Horton’s hypocrisies, challenges Horton’s rules, and empowers the rest of Horton’s staff. This causes a chain reaction that escalates into greater acts of defiance by the servants against their employer — defiance that utterly baffles Horton and leads him to suspect that there may be more to this newly-hired chef than meets the eye.
What really ties the entire film together and make it such an immersive study of class contradictions and political two-facedness are the main performances of Sarsgaard and Magnussen as two social chameleons with completely different goals. Minor spoilers ahead. When we meet J.C. Horton, he’s masquerading as a titan of social justice while indulging in all of the luxuries he pretends to be deprived of. Magnussen does a tremendous job of creating an easily despicable character, an elite pretending to be for the rights of the people, by creating someone who oozes a sense of superiority and indignance towards actual working class people when they try to press him on any of his supposed values. Sarsgaard’s character Floyd Monk is essentially the inverse of Magnussen’s. Sarsgaard’s character, Floyd Monk, on the other hand pretends to be a loyal obedient chef to Horton while at the same time plotting on how to uproot Horton and his privileged life while also working to empower the other workers under Horton’s employ. What is brought to the screen are two people engaged in constant conflict with each other where each is engaging a type of social subterfuge whereas Magnussen is never able to convince us that he’s anything more than a snobby grifter, Sarsgaard cannot help but give a deeply charismatic performance where even when he’s lying through his teeth you get a sense of the honesty buried within it and an even greater sense of the rage he holds towards his employer Horton. The class antagonism between Monk and Horton is palpable and can be felt in every scene when their respective scheming against the other ultimately collides and their true feelings break through their carefully constructed facades. These performances elevate the otherwise decent script into something much more fun and psychologically compelling.
Aside from the performances, script, and directing, there is not too much else to write home about this movie. The film’s narrative and general composition is not anything particularly innovative albeit class struggle is a timeless subject, so in some regards this limitation on the script is understandable. Still, the film carries little in the way of surprise, be it narratively or technically. The film also has some jarring moments, in particular, sequences involving CGI look fairly laughable and the supporting cast, while fun and entertaining in their own right, gets unfortunately pushed to the side in favor of focusing solely on Monk and Horton’s war against each other. Regardless, the film’s message remains important as ever and the performances of the main cast are respectively entertaining and charming enough in their own right that it made me wish there could have been more for me to watch before the credits began to roll. This film is not doing anything all that new, but maybe that’s the point, that the clashes between the rich and poor is something that has always been around. I’s only by taking action and getting active like Monk that we can hope to achieve something better for all people while uprooting those responsible for the issues. This film is not perfect, but I wholeheartedly recommend it.
3.5/5