The Birthday Party

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MB C @MB.Cinema Oct 21, 2026 **The Birthday Party ** unfolds over 48 hours on a private Greek island in the summer of 1975, where powerful industrialist Marcus Timoleon gathers guests to celebrate his daughter Sophia’s 25th birthday. Beneath the luxurious setting, family tensions and threats emerge as Sophia fights for independence and Olivia, Marcus’s wife, seeks a way out of their marriage. Vicky Krieps? No — Vic Carmen Sonne delivers the film’s strongest performance, portraying Sophia’s struggle with vulnerability and quiet defiance. Willem Dafoe brings an unsettling presence to Marcus, while the cinematography, sharp lighting, and sound design turn the island’s beauty into an atmosphere of constant surveillance and psychological pressure. However, the film’s persistent emotional coldness can create distance, and Dafoe’s performance draws on familiar strengths rather than revealing much that feels new.... See more Andy M @RT47186659 Sep 10, 2026 Dafoe is the reason to watch this, plain and simple. He plays Marcos Timoleon, a Greek shipping billionaire who throws his daughter a huge 25th birthday party on his private island — but really he’s using it to wreck her secret relationship with his biographer. Classic controlling-father stuff, and Dafoe clearly relishes it, all brooding menace one minute and unsettling charm the next. The film itself looks gorgeous — endless sunshine, glittering water, decadent 1970s excess — and there’s a decent slow-burn tension as you wait for everything to blow up between father and daughter. But it takes too long getting there, the supporting cast barely gets a look-in, and by the end it feels more messy than tragic. You can see what it’s going for with the whole Greek-tragedy angle; it just doesn’t quite land it. Glad I watched it for the performance, but I won’t be rushing back. One for a lazy evening when nothing else is on. See more Kristin R @igobykristin Aug 31, 2026 The editing on this movie is bonkers. It skips from one scene to the next with no context. The casting is crazy. The daughter who is having her 25th birthday looks 45. Her boyfriend looks 20. The party doesn't look like a party, it looks like extras. I knew it had bad reviews and I still paid for it. Didn't realize it was going to be this bad. See more Andrei D @RT74856639 Aug 27, 2026 A mostly empty stylistic exercise that sometimes shows that it might have been a movie if it cared about any of the characters See more Read all reviews

The Birthday Party

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