The Birthday Party

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The Birthday Party

Aug 2026

1h 43m

Drama

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Popcornmeter

30%

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33 Reviews

Popcornmeter

Fewer than 50 Ratings

The story is set in the late 1970s somewhere in the Mediterranean, where Marcos Timoleon, an Aristotle Onassis-like tycoon, is throwing a lavish, extravagant birthday party for Sofia, his daughter and sole heiress, on his exclusive private island. The party is a perfect excuse for various people in his life to approach him with their own agendas. But Marcos, who is used to ruthlessly controlling everything and everyone around him at whatever cost, is also secretly plotting a big decision on his daughter's behalf. Sofia, however, has come to share some important news of her own. As guests start pouring in and night falls, the party grows rowdier and more decadent, while the inevitable clash between Marcos and Sofia reaches a heartbreaking climax.

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Sergio Burstein

Los Angeles Times

Sep 9, 2026

The film frequently meanders between its various characters, which occasionally causes it to lose focus, but this, in turn, lends itself to some genuinely interesting scenes. [Full review in Spanish]

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Robert Daniels

RogerEbert.com

Aug 15, 2026

1/4

Sometimes you see a movie so dull, it’s a struggle to string words together about it. "The Birthday Party," Miguel Ángel Jiménez’s meandering snooze fest, which premiered at the Locarno Film Festival last year, is the prime example of one such movie.

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Guy Lodge

Variety

Aug 12, 2025

Brooding, glowering and sometimes even speak-singing his way through proceedings, Dafoe is rarely less than compelling; the same cannot be said, however, for the leaden film around him.

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Frank Swietek

One Guy's Opinion

Sep 13, 2026

C-

This is one party you should definitely RSVP to—in the negative, though it’s aways perversely amusing to watch Dafoe overindulge, and in this case to hear him 'sing.'

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Brett Arnold

At the Movies Again

Sep 1, 2026

The premise may be interesting, but the movie is not. You're waiting for something to happen the whole time, instead it remains at a low simmer and nothing does.

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Erik Childress

Movie Madness Podcast

Aug 19, 2026

1.5/4

Rich people talk on the phone nude. They are not like us and despite getting to hear Willem Dafoe sing you can practically see the meme of Mark Ruffalo from Zodiac saying ‘sounds like a terrible party.’

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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.

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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.

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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

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Miguel Ángel Jiménez

Director

Willem Dafoe

Marcos Timoleon

Vic Carmen Sonne

Sofia

Joe Cole

Journalist

Emma Suárez

Olivia

Carlos Cuevas

Actor

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The Birthday Party: Trailer 1

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Synopsis

The story is set in the late 1970s somewhere in the Mediterranean, where Marcos Timoleon, an Aristotle Onassis-like tycoon, is throwing a lavish, extravagant birthday party for Sofia, his daughter and sole heiress, on his exclusive private island. The party is a perfect excuse for various people in his life to approach him with their own agendas. But Marcos, who is used to ruthlessly controlling everything and everyone around him at whatever cost, is also secretly plotting a big decision on his daughter's behalf. Sofia, however, has come to share some important news of her own. As guests start pouring in and night falls, the party grows rowdier and more decadent, while the inevitable clash between Marcos and Sofia reaches a heartbreaking climax.

Director: Miguel Ángel Jiménez
Producer: Giorgos Karnavas, Adria Mones, Erik Glijnis, Leontine Petit, Kurban Kassam
Screenwriter: Miguel Ángel Jiménez, Giorgos Karnavas, Nicos Panayotopoulos
Distributor: Quiver Distribution
Production Co: Heretic
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Aug 14, 2026, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Aug 14, 2026
Runtime: 1h 43m

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