This would have worked better as a play, probably, because the setting is so sparse, the performances so compact, and the dialogue so forceful.

| May 7, 2018

We're in great company and the story's physical confines don't restrict its range or ambitions. As well as dissecting a 30-year marriage, Potter's script takes in the state of Britain today.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 11, 2018

There are moments, mostly in the latter half, when the ensemble works well together and Thomas, especially, gets to shine as her world falls apart. But these elements aren't enough to justify attending this "Party."

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Mar 2, 2018

Potter's comic dissection of the London intelligentsia's personal and political angst is completely of the moment.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Mar 2, 2018

With a cast like this, "The Party" should have been a delicious romp. Instead, it's over before it gets started.

| Original Score: C- | Mar 2, 2018

It's not entirely satisfying but Potter delivers a darkly delicious comedy of manners.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 1, 2018

It's worth attending this party if only for Scott Thomas, who's never less than electric. Somebody needs to put Janet and her quivering energy at the center of a superhero movie; I'd watch.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 1, 2018

You'll want to stay on your toes, but this Party invite is not one you'll want to decline.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Mar 1, 2018

The Party is a brisk, black-and-white, worst-possible-case dinner party scenario overflowing with good actors and bad vibes. It resembles a minor-league distillation of Edward Albee and Woody Allen, but at least there are those performers to look at

| Original Score: B- | Feb 23, 2018

Like a soap bubble, writer-director Sally Potter's arch sendup of the English intelligentsia (plus the odd coked-up banker) is brief, diverting, and laden with impending doom from its very first moments.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Feb 23, 2018

[Patricia Clarkson] has seldom been in a vehicle so witty and cerebral as Sally Potter's drawing-room comedy.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 22, 2018

Potter has assembled all the makings of an acid-bath of a social satire but somehow avoids the killing blow.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Feb 22, 2018

Shot in a glossy, appealing black-and-white and filmed in a single location, The Party generates a pressure cooker atmosphere.

| Feb 21, 2018

Potter's cast never overstays its welcome, giving us plenty to think - and talk - about, and in a scant 71 minutes.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 21, 2018

Potter's movie may be too small to leave a substantial legacy. But you can't take your eyes off it as ace actors, led by a deliciously acerbic Patricia Clarkson, serve up hilarious verbal fireworks that knock the wind out of you.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 17, 2018

As the credits rolled, I felt cheated, robbed of a climax that suited this sophisticated and deliciously dark comedy.

| Feb 16, 2018

It's easier to respect a filmmaker's sense of hopelessness when it's mixed with this much affection.

| Feb 16, 2018

A beautifully conceived and executed chamber comedy/drama with tragedy at its core.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Feb 16, 2018

Janet and her bickering guests come across as cartoon bourgeois, thinly-drawn and wooden in their line delivery like dummies of a ventriloquist bent on caricaturing a privileged elite ...

| Feb 15, 2018

Demonstrates what can happen when a filmmaker takes on a well-worn cinematic subgenre - the dinner party gone horribly wrong - and strips it down to its blistering bare-bones essence.

| Feb 15, 2018