English writer-editor-director Wheatley’s filmography is a striking mish-mash of thriller, satire, black comedy, and giant sharks. While he dabbles in unexpectedly mainstream fare such as Meg 2: The Trench<\/em> and the misguided remake of Rebecca<\/em>, he’s most at home with works that are unnerving, bleakly funny, and extremely British. He’s comfortable in playing around with genre conventions, from the psychological torment of the hitman thriller in Kill List<\/em> to the Hammer-esque surreal intrusions of A Field in England<\/em>. Horror typically shapes even his most un-horror films, which makes perfect sense for the claustrophobic awkwardness of Happy New Year, Colin Burstead<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Colin of the title (Neil Maskell) has organized a New Year’s Eve party for his extended family, booking a posh country house in Dorset for the occasion. While he talks about the importance of family, it seems that nobody in the Burstead clan has any interest in keeping up appearances. His dad (Bill Patterson) keeps hitting him up for money. His mother (Doon Mackichan) is an attention seeker who semi-intentionally tries to injure herself upon arrival for sympathy (which Colin refuses to give). Uncle Bertie is a cross-dresser (Charles Dance, looking amazing), the caterer is Colin’s ex, all of his friends seem to be sleeping with one another, and an uninvited family friend, Sham (Asim Chaudhry), is hanging out on the sidelines as he works out his own problems. To make matters even worse, Colin’s sister Gini (Hayley Squires) has invited their estranged brother David (Sam Riley) to the party, alongside his glamorous wife Hannah (Alexandra Maria Lara, Riley’s real-life spouse). It’s a decision she regrets immediately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It’s clear that while the Bursteads may love each other (emphasis on the \u201cmay\u201d), they certainly don\u2019t like one another. The tension is well-worn as petty squabbles and pointed conversations reek of familiarity, as though they\u2019ve relitigated the same matters every time they\u2019ve met. The camera moves through the party like another guest trying to find somewhere reasonably normal to hang out but never locating it (the handheld approach evokes parallels to another dinner party drama about familial strife, Thomas Vinterberg\u2019s Festen<\/em>). Everyone is swearing under their breath then loudly to their next target. For all the delusions of family bliss, it\u2019s obvious that everyone likes hurting one another as much as possible. There\u2019s a lot of crying, but maybe even more eye-rolling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wheatley\u2019s screeenplay is very loosely inspired by Shakespeare’s Coriolanus<\/em> (the working title was Colin, You Anus<\/em>), but a closer comparison would be Mike Leigh’s early comedies, particularly Abigail’s Party<\/em>. The agonizing awkwardness of Leigh\u2019s portrayal of the new middle classes of the \u201870s has been swapped for the bitter tensions of post-Brexit Britain. It was one of the first British films to have characters discussing the European Union vote, alongside other dinner table conversations on money, work, and exes. The seasonal chats about deeply unfriendly topics that one has over the holidays are conveyed here with the simplicity and pain that many will find all too familiar. Much like Leigh\u2019s Abigail, the price of keeping up appearances is often too high to pay. Even the backdrop of this beautiful but personality-free country house is a lie, a for-rent dollar store Downton owned by Lord Richard (Richard Glover), a nice but dim posh guy who’s as desperate for money as Colin’s parents.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Stripped to the bone of sentimentality, Happy New Year, Colin Burstead<\/em> does have something of a heart, albeit a shriveled black one working overtime to stay alive. It might be Wheatley\u2019s most normal film, but it\u2019s also his most human, the one that will probably hit too close to home for many. It\u2019s a thoroughly 21st<\/sup>-century slice of British malaise and bitterness, with Clint Mansell\u2019s Medieval-esque score somehow only strengthening that. Perhaps it\u2019s not the New Year\u2019s movie most people would want when they\u2019re hoping to make 2025 better than what preceded it, but it\u2019s the most honest representation of how this whole charade actually works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/colin2-1024x428.jpg\")
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