The Party (2017)

It's openly theatrical, but if it feels like a film of a play, it's a play you really should see.

Over 71 crisp minutes of fast-paced verbal combat, Potter tests the age-old theory that it's all fun and games until somebody gets knocked unconscious.

A deliciously heightened, caviar-black comedy that sets up its brittle, bourgeois characters like bowling pins and gleefully knocks them down in 71 minutes flat.

... The Party is a highly entertaining and sharp piece of theatrical cinema, which will engage audiences from start to finish.

The Party relies not on gimmicks or CGI, but simple, clever narrative structures, witty dialogue and a cast of impenetrable actors. It's a true triumph.

The Party is a very funny film, and a great deal of that comes from Clarkson.

The Party is whip-smart satire at its very best.

This is a comedy that bites because it is utterly and urgently of our moment.

Patricia Clarkson shines particularly brightly as Janet's splendidly withering best friend.

I found it largely arid and a waste of its impressive cast (including Kristin Scott Thomas, Timothy Spall, Bruno Ganz and Patricia Clarkson). Its situations are laboured and much of its dialogue is unwieldy.

An impressively lean affair, shot in a single location with few frills and no fuss - just an A-list cast at the top of their game.

Sally Potter's film combines the old-fashioned charm of theatrical drawing room comedy with the biting wit of a modern social satire.