Bad movies come in all shapes, sizes and genres, and have the capacity to rub a viewer wrong depending on a variety of conditions. But there’s something especially exasperating about the cinematic misfire that believes it is imparting crafty truths or insight about the social condition of an era. Such is the case with Affluenza, a stilted, utterly phony drama of rich-kid angst that thinks it’s saying something about the hidden perils of privilege but is actually just an exercise in wheel-spinning inanity.
Fisher Miller (Ben Rosenfield) kind of maybe possibly wants to be a photographer, or something. After he gets into some minor trouble at school, his father, Ira (Danny Burstein), deposits Fisher with his rich uncle, Philip (Steve Guttenberg), a wound-up financial sector asshole; his aunt Bunny (Samantha Mathis), a cocktail-sipping stay-at-home wife and mother with the sort of emotional tendencies that suggests; and his cousin, Katherine (Nicola Peltz), who, like, is into tanning, and begrudgingly introduces Fisher to her social circle. In short order, Fisher’s marijuana connections open doors, both to Katherine’s boyfriend, Todd (Grant Gustin), and the rich party guy, Dylan (Gregg Sulkin), who wants to win her over. Complications ensue, naturally.
The performances herein are mostly a wash—functional embodiments of thinly defined characters. Rosenfield has a slightly detached quality that works well for the distinct apartness of Fisher. (Anton Yelchin, having previously had these sorts of roles on lockdown, by way of movies like Middle of Nowhere and Fierce People, seems to have finally aged out of them. Or perhaps he was unavailable.) Peltz, of the recent Transformers: Age of Extinction and herself the daughter of a billionaire, conveys a certain blithe snootiness, though it’s difficult to gauge whether that is a function of talent or coincidence. And the apple-cheeked Sulkin almost achieves multidimensionality as Dylan, the slightly awkward nouveau-rich kid who has to carve out and defend his social status against sneering, old-money-with-training-wheels types.
Director Kevin Asch’s previous film, Holy Rollers, stood astride two contrasting and colliding worlds—telling the (true) story of Hasidic Jews recruited to smuggle ecstasy from Eastern Europe into the United States—and it had a relaxed assurance and genuine quality to match its odd, interesting story. Unfortunately, the only quality Affluenza shares with that film is an attractive visual presentation—in this case a backdrop of conspicuous consumption, effectively rendered on a budget. The movie looks quite nice, with stylish and subtle work from cinematographer Tim Gillis.