In a secluded house in a small seaside town live four unrelated men and the woman who tends to the house and their needs. All former priests, they have been sent to this quiet exile to purge the sins of their pasts, the separation from their communities the worst form of punishment by the Church. They keep to a strict daily schedule devoid of all temptation and spontaneity, each moment a deliberate effort to atone for their wrongdoings.
Ratings
Curator score: 7.1/10
IMDb: 7.2/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 88%
Metacritic: 73
TMDB: 6.9/10
Director
Pablo Larraín
Production
Fabula
Cast
Alfredo Castro, Roberto Farías, Antonia Zegers, Marcelo Alonso, Jaime Vadell, Alejandro Goic, Alejandro Sieveking, José Soza, Francisco Reyes, Diego Muñoz, Gonzalo Valenzuela, Catalina Pulido, Paola Lattus, Erto Pantoja, Felipe Ríos, Williams Farías, Claudio Marín, Horacio Donoso, Arturo Donoso, Luis Ignacio Meléndez
Where to watch
Amazon Prime Video, fuboTV, Philo, OVID, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Curator Review
Verdict
A severe, unsettling chamber drama that turns institutional guilt into something almost physically oppressive. Its cold visual design, strong ensemble work, and moral disgust make it one of the more memorable Catholic-corruption films of the decade.
Best for
viewers who like bleak moral dramas
fans of slow-burn institutional critique
audiences drawn to austere, controlled filmmaking
people interested in Catholic guilt and abuse scandals
Skip if
you want emotional uplift or catharsis
you dislike ambiguous, oppressive art-house storytelling
you are sensitive to sexual abuse themes
you prefer fast-paced thrillers with clear resolutions
Overview
The Club is a punishing, tightly controlled film about men who have been hidden away so the institution can keep its conscience clean. Pablo Larraín stages the house like a sealed container of rot, where routine becomes punishment and silence becomes complicity. The result is less a mystery than a moral autopsy.
Worth noting
What lingers most is the film’s texture: washed-out light, uneasy framing, and a sense that the image itself is contaminated. The performances are uniformly strong, with the ensemble making each character feel trapped in a different shade of denial, shame, or self-preservation.
Bottom line
This is not an easy watch, and it is not meant to be. But for viewers who respond to severe, politically charged cinema that weaponizes atmosphere and discomfort, it is a brutal and effective piece of work.
Top Letterboxd reviews
rotch (5★) · 323 likes
Después de toda la buenaondita que había en No (la única otra película de Larraín que había visto) la verdad no esperaba una bofetada tan dura y fría como es El club. Esa casa amarilla es de hoy en adelante el lugar donde suceden todas mis pesadillas.
Y de todo lo increíble en El club, lo más increíble son sus actores. No hay ni un peldaño flojo, pero Roberto Farías como Sandokan me rompió el corazón como poco personaje lo… more
Jesús González · 162 likes
Ahora mismo no recuerdo otra película que me haya provocado tanta incomodidad como El Club. A incomodidad física me refiero. Cuesta verla. Todas esas imperfecciones formales —la iluminación, la saturación, el enfoque— están concienzudamente diseñadas para que parezca que no debemos estar viendo nada de lo que se nos está mostrando: la existencia de un purgatorio inútil que solo pretende proteger al pecador de los de afuera y a los de afuera del pecado. Cuatro muros amarillos latentes de culpa… more Ahora mismo no recuerdo otra película que me haya provocado tanta incomodidad como El Club. A incomodidad física me refiero. Cuesta verla. Todas esas imperfecciones formales —la iluminación, la saturación, el enfoque— están concienzudamente diseñadas para que parezca que no debemos estar viendo nada de lo que se nos está mostrando: la existencia de un purgatorio inútil que solo pretende proteger al pecador de los de afuera y a los de afuera del pecado. Cuatro muros amarillos latentes de culpa… more
Licha (4★) · 147 likes
Muy buena pero no la quiero ver nunca más en mi vida.
matt lynch (3★) · 142 likes
The sin is calling from inside the house!
davidehrlich (4★) · 140 likes
NO was a wash.
THE CLUB is the truth.
(if you're at TIFF, do yourself a favor and see this and SPOTLIGHT as close together as possible)