In a sea of transatlantic accents and hedonism, greed is the real pandemic in Joseph Schuman and Austin Stark’s Coup! With a runtime of 97 minutes, Shuman and Stark deliver a sharp and sophisticated comedy depicting a power struggle that covers a much darker human impulse. Coup! captures its audience through bleeding-heart characters, witty dialogue, and a timely plot.
Despite the film’s story being set over 100 years ago, viewers may feel a sense of déjà vu as we enter a world plagued by the Spanish flu– where masks are required and one’s grasp on reality slowly fades while quarantining in place. In this not-so-distant era, Coup! follows a rebellious chef named Monk leading a revolt against his wealthy employer, J.C. Horton. Monk, played by a distractingly dashing Peter Saarsgard, is a charlatan with Southern charm and an apathetic demeanor who seizes the opportunity to infiltrate wealthy spaces. Naive to the chaos ahead, J.C. Horton (Billy Magnussen) enthusiastically welcomes Monk into his isolated seaside estate. There, we meet the Horton family (notably Sarah Gadon as Horton’s wife, Julie), and the rest of the servants–or staff– as Horton would prefer.
On paper, the two men could not be more different. Monk presents himself as a lovable scoundrel, while Horton is a Marxist journalist, a “prisoner in paradise,” and a forgetting member of the bourgeoisie. He launched a career advocating for the downtrodden while simultaneously enjoying the comforts of upper-class wealth. His work as a writer provides the voiceless an avenue to be heard and ridicule the “capitalist cronies” who force the lower class to expose themselves to the virus by refusing to close their buildings. The tension between these two characters, Monk who longs for more, and Horton who is ashamed of his affluence, is the heart of the story.
Much like the flu spreading across the land, Monk begins to infect the other servants with his visions of grandeur and ropes them into a ploy to demand more from the benevolent master Horton. This starts simple, such as servants being allowed to drink, and escalates to servants moving into the mansion, dining with the family, and even swimming in Horton’s beloved pool. While Monk and the other servants slowly inch into higher privileges without using a hammer and sickle, Horton progressively gets wilder as he loses his balance as master of the house.
The viewer finds himself conflicted between choosing a side as the antics evolve– something Horton himself relates to. To Horton’s demise, Monk wins over the hearts and minds of Julie, the staff, and his children. Heavy is the head that challenges power, and as the staff’s staunchness for Horton oscillates, Monk begins to feel its weight.
This conflict is heightened by Sarsgaard and Magnussen’s performances. Saarsgard delivers a knock-out performance that reaches an almost Robin Williams level of mischief and charm. Costume designer Stacy Jansen’s choice to dress Monk in dangly earrings and ostentatious v-necks highlights to the viewer that this man intentionally masks a piece of his history in his clothing. What he lacks in wealth, he makes up with exuding false confidence. There is a grit to the character, a passing look in his eye that causes pause and alerts the viewer that perhaps there is more to Monk’s story than we have been told, which the film confirms in the final act.
Horton, on the other hand, is an open book. Magnussen brings a vulnerability to Horton such that even as we watch him spew lies and drink himself into a stupor, we pity him. As he hangs preciously onto certain beliefs, such as no killing of any kind in the household, the viewer can not help but ponder if Horton truly deserves the punishment Monk inflicts on him. While he may have been dishonest and a hypocrite, he never came off as cruel.
While both leading men have impressive mustaches to twirl, Gadon as Horton’s wife, Julie, is an exceptionally underrated performance. Julie’s character adds a nuisance to the dynamics, seemingly able to fit both in Horton’s glass castle and Monk’s gritty world of cards and drinks – this ability to navigate both forces us to question why Horton can not do the same. Similarly, we wonder why Monk’s thirst for more can not be quenched.
In an era of films that comment on class warfare, such as Saltburn (2023) or Parasite (2019), Coup! manages to stand out as a fresh approach to a daunting concept. It challenges the viewer to consider their own privileges, as they type “eat the rich” on their social media, all while maintaining a comedic undertone that allows the film to be approachable to the average viewer and not just the chronically online or socially conscious folk. The complexity of Monk and Horton’s motivations and choices adds a refreshing layer to the gilded moral conversation. By placing our characters within their own pandemic, the film creates an even stronger connection with the audience as we are, quite literally, able to relate to the situations the characters experience and reflect on our own choices when placed in the same situation.
Monk and Horton become the audience surrogates and, much like in real life, it becomes difficult to simply “pick a side.” These moral dilemmas and self-turmoil are all wrapped in a cleverly written script with top-tier comedic performances that allow the film to plant these thoughts on the viewer in an accessible way, covered in a laugh or a gasp, waiting to slowly creep up within you once the film finishes.
Throughout the film’s quick runtime, the audience pokes fun at the absurdity on both sides without explicitly revealing who the antihero truly is. In Coup!, the House rules, while never fully showing one’s hands. Although not groundbreaking in the class warfare subgenre, Coup! elicits dark laughs and makes for an unforgettable viewing experience that anyone can enjoy and contemplate, no matter their background. The audience has no choice but to laugh as we watch Horton’s pristinely curated image crumble and the two conspirators emotionally duel until their swan songs.
After all, you either have servants, or you are one.
Review Courtesy of Valerie Buvat de Virginy
Feature Image Credit to IMDb
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