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Poster for Bright Young Things

Bright Young Things

Sex... Scandal... Celebrity... Some things never change.

2003 · 1h 46m · R Comedy
Directed by Stephen Fry

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Overview

In the 1930s, a social set known to the press – who follow their every move – as the “Bright Young Things” are Adam and his friends who are eccentric, wild and entirely shocking to the older generation. Amidst the madness, Adam, who is well connected but totally broke, is desperately trying to get enough money to marry the beautiful Nina. While his attempts to raise cash are constantly thwarted, their friends seem to self-destruct, one-by-one, in an endless search for newer and faster sensations. Finally, when world events out of their control come crashing around them, they are forced to reassess their lives and what they value most.

Director and cast

Critics on Rotten Tomatoes

Top critics, in their words

All reviews
65%
Tomatometer
Rotten

The 'wit' is leaden and unfunny; the narrative's progress ungainly; the direction stolid.

Geoff Andrew, Time Out
Fresh

One conceit of writer-director Stephen Fry is to dramatize parties as knots of chaos, social hurricanes that spill across the landscape this way and that, ruining lives, eating time, preventing progress of any kind.

Stephen Hunter, Houston Chronicle
Rotten

Though Fry's movie has plenty of nasty wit, it lacks the sheer luxurious malice of Waugh's book. Fry is acerbic; Waugh is lethal.

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Fresh

Suffers from feeling like it's just pretending to be good when it's obviously much, much happier being bad. But when it's bad, it's very, very good.

Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star
Rotten

If you yearn for a Brit fix, this is your flick. If not, think twice before checking it out.

Jay Boyar, Orlando Sentinel

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