''The Club'' ( es, El Club) is a 2015 Chilean

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed, co-produced and co-written by

Pablo Larraín Pablo Larraín Matte (; born 19 August 1976) is a Chilean filmmaker. He has directed nine feature films and co-directed one television series, including the Academy Award-nominated films ''No (2012 film), No'' (2012), ''Neruda (film), Neruda'' ...

. It was screened in the main competition of the

65th Berlin International Film Festival The 65th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 5 to 15 February 2015, with American film director Darren Aronofsky as the President of the Jury. German film director Wim Wenders was presented with the Honorary Golden Bear. The ...

where it won the

Jury Grand Prix The Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize (also Jury Grand Prix, Grand Prize of the Jury) is an award given by the jury at the Berlin International Film Festival to one of the feature films in competition. It is the runner-up to the Golden Bear prize an ...

. It was selected as the Chilean entry for the

Best Foreign Language Film This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

at the

88th Academy Awards The 88th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2015 and took place on February 28, 2016, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, 5:30 p.m. PST. Du ...

but it was not nominated.

Plot

Four retired Catholic priests share a secluded house in the outskirts of a small Chilean beach town under the supervision of a vigilant female caretaker who used to be a nun. The four men are there to discreetly purge their alleged sins and crimes (child abuse, baby-snatching for adoptions, whistleblower, etc.). They are not permitted to mingle with the townsfolk and are only allowed to be out during early morning and late night. Their only hobby is breeding a race dog and entering into competitions. This changes for them when a new priest arrives and a victim of his child abuse follows him. This results in the priest committing suicide. Subsequently a new spiritual director arrives and their life and their routine is disrupted.

Cast

Reception

The film was well received, with ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

''giving it five stars and said Pablo Larraín was "at his most masterful". ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' called it "an original and brilliantly acted chamber drama in which Larrain’s fiercely political voice comes through as loud and clear as ever". On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film has an 88% score based on 89 reviews, with an average rating of 7.86/10. The site's consensus states: "''The Club'' finds director Pablo Larraín continuing to pose difficult questions while exploring weighty themes -- and getting the most out of a talented cast."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

reports a 73 out of 100 score based on 26 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Awards

References

External links