In ‘COUP!’ find a sharp ‘comedy of menace,’ with Peter Sarsgaard and Billy Magnussen

It’s the early days of the 1918 pandemic when a mysterious new chef descends on a wealthy family’s estate in the new film “COUP!”

The chef, played by Peter Sarsgaard, is a worldly and questioning sort with a mischievous streak who torments his employer, Billy Magnussen, a self-styled progressive journalist looking out for the plight of the worker from his gilded fortress. As the world shuts down around them and the grounds become ever more isolated, tensions continue to rise with both comedic and tragic outcomes.

“I fell in love with it right away,” Magnussen said.

But “ COUP! ”, in theaters Friday, is the kind of original script that doesn’t often see the light of day. Its tonal and aesthetic inspirations range from the works of playwright Harold Pinter to Luis Buñuel’s “The Exterminating Angel” and the genre-bending work of the Coen brothers. So, when co-writers and directors Austin Stark and Joseph Schuman asked Magnussen if he was interested, the actor went a step further. He brought his production company HappyBad Bungalow into the fold.

“I was like, ‘Yeah, and I’ll help make this thing with you,’” said Magnussen. “This was us getting down and dirty, you know? Doing it all ourselves. It was finding the locations, getting the people organized, getting all the department heads together. It was a whole team effort.”

Sarsgaard was one of their earliest asks, someone Stark and Schuman said they imagined while writing Floyd. He’s the kind of actor who they knew had the dexterity to handle the complex character, who may or may not have murdered someone, and whose arrival hastens the unraveling of Magnussen’s gentleman journalist and the delicate social structure of his household.

“It was kind of unlike anything I’m usually offered,” Sarsgaard said. “I thought of him as really a man of the world. A guy who knew more than this rich fella sitting pretty in his castle. He doesn’t have the intellectual 30,000-foot understanding of what’s going on. But he certainly has the on-the-ground understanding, and something more interesting than street smarts.”

Sarsgaard, too, became an executive producer, wanting to help make sure the film was made at the right price point that would also maximize creativity, like staying in one main location.

“He elevated the character in ways we never imagined,” the co-directors said in an email. "Probably because he shares our twisted sense of humor.”

Sarsgaard is also having a bit of a moment with his riveting small screen turn as prosecutor Tommy Molto on the AppleTV+ series “ Presumed Innocent,” and not just because of the bolo tie (his idea, by the way). Though both Tommy and his “COUP!” character are a little mysterious and odd, Sarsgaard insists he isn’t consciously toying with audience expectations in either case.

“I think the filmmakers are doing that for you and not me. I truly just honored the way I thought a person would act in a given moment,” he said. “When people would tell me that the character seemed like he was up to something or, God forbid, said he was creepy, I truly didn’t understand.”

“COUP!” debuted at the Venice Film Festival last year where it garnered strong reviews, but even so, it’s an uphill battle for a small distributor like Greenwich Entertainment to get something like it to audiences. It’s not one that you’re necessarily going to hear about from an ad during the Olympics, or through a flashy international press tour with stops in Tokyo and London. It’s the kind of film that needs word of mouth most of all.

“It’s challenging when everyone’s like ‘the market doesn’t do this,’” Magnussen said. “You’re like what market? It’s art. Let’s remember that. And audiences are capable of elevated material and ideas.”

This summer Hollywood has churned out its share of remakes, reboots and popcorn fare. But there’s also an undercurrent of enthusiasm for original gambles, with films as different as “ Thelma ” and “ Longlegs ” finding audiences without the marketing budgets of “Twisters” or “ Deadpool & Wolverine.”

“It’s kind of a rollicking good time,” Sarsgaard said. “I think at this current moment, the news has taken over the slot for movies that make you think real hard. I respect that. This is not that: This is absurd and fun.”