sexy beast

[cluckyburger]

frigging awesome

[Salazkin]

Yep. Is Ben Kingsley among the world's top three actors or what?

[s1eve]

Don: Shut up, cu*t. You louse. You got some f*ckin' neck ain't you. Retired? F*ck off, you're revolting. Look at your suntan, it's leather, it's like leather man, your skin. We could make a f*cking suitcase out of you. Like a crocodile, fat crocodile, fat bastard. You look like f*cking Idi Amin, you know what I mean? Stay here? You should be ashamed of yourself. Who do you think you are? King of the castle? C*ck of the walk?

A great film.

[habronic]

ben kingsley is pretty amazing, especially when you juxtapose don against ghandi. :)

and lovejoy himself pops up as well ;)

[Erehwon]

this was such a freakin' awesome film, once I got the slant on how to understand the heavy accents.

I loved it. I love the shot of Kingsly, ala Ghandi, sitting in his underwear, cross-legged.

Way funny!

Great film.

"You tell 'em I'm comin'!!"

[whitenavel]

Brilliant piece of work. How Kingsley didn't get the Oscar is beyond me. Ray Winstone is fantastic too. Put his performance up against the one he did in The War Zone. Wow!
And I love that song from The Peaches.
This is a film I watch everytime it is on.

[Hasil Adkins]

And I love that song from The Peaches.You mean the Stranglers?

[BeefMissile]

I enjoyed Sexy Beast. I'd say BK did great work with that role but his later film; Suspect Zero was a little too much. I can see why the studio dumped the film the way they did. BK is a great actor but actors need good material too.

[elephant1978]

I love this film so much and have discussed it so many times that I honestly don't know what else I can say about it. It's in my top 5 of all time.

And it's not just the acting and writing. This film should be shown if film schools on how to direct a movie...Glazer uses the frame so wisely. Sure, it's just people sitting around talking for the most part, but he uses lenses, focus, angles to tell the story visually despite all the talk. A lot could be learned.

Ele...

[cluckyburger]

what’s most impressive is how it touches on several genres, employing their conventions, yet manages to stand on its own and not feel reductive.

as glazer says on the mini-feature it’s an amazingly simple plot [if I heard the logline I’d sigh]. kingsley, for obvious reasons, gets a lot of the attention but ray winstone

is freaking stellar.

edited to ask sb fans:
what do you think of 'birth'?

[vig]

to me the movie is one you really want to study.

for starters we can look at the first scene, a boulder rolling into your pool is forshadowing ben's kingsley's character. ben's the boulder.

the water means so much in the script - water robbery. the first scene is not only funny, scary, and insane, a tone setter, it is a conscious decision by the director to the layer the script from the first scene with different variations of subtext, shot filmically.

subtext is so many different things. it's core, is 'what lies beneath', as an example, but that does not limit it to the spoken word. subtext can be expressed in clothes, car choices, location etc... visual elements are tools to layer the script, it's all subtext, things that come out later that helps frame the theme.

subtext isnfilm school 101, is they are not talking about the toothbrush being old, but about something else, (okay, i KNOW THAT)

Subtext is craft within the lanugage of film. sexy beast's entire movie is that textured; it's always about what's under the radar until the very end. as far as craft goes, the depth of the movie is astounding.

sexy beast is 'house of sand and fog' but even darker. way past even the darkets movies that come to mind. ben kingsley is sonny corrleon with micheals patience. he's a guy who would literally do anything no matter how morally bankrupt, even for these people. he was a terminator.

it was as deliberate a movie as i've ever seen. once kingsley got into that compound the entire movie was filmed at the speed in which kingsley explained his motives. the movie litterally was filmed as he acted.

it didn't care about so many of the 'don'ts.

PAUSES -- i mean we just sat and thought it out like the characters would. we lived it realtime, not movie time. that was a brilliant thing and completely made this experience one of the best i've had at a movie.

i've had people tell me the movie never started and it was kind of pointless. sure, it's pointless to everyone but those five people. it was RESEVOIR DOGSsq.

it's so much more than a movie, but an expression of personal spirit.

vig

[elephant1978]

As ferocious as Don Logan is, he's really just a hurt, insecure man. Look at how hurt he is over Jackie not returning his love, how much he hates Aitch because she loves him, how he's really using this visit to Gale as an excuse to see Jackie. He's a guy who never gets his way, despite his efforts - both with Gale and with Jackie, and it infuriates him so much. He's misunderstood in many ways and acts out violently as his defense.

Brilliant, complex character.

Ele...

[whitenavel]

You mean the Stranglers?

Oops. Yes, The Stranglers sang Peaches.

As for Birth, it was lacking any sort of believability and came off as gimmicky. But I enjoyed the style and look of the film. Glazer has a nice touch with the look of his films and can get great performances from his actors.

[Salazkin]

Just caught this again last night and thought I'd get your opinions on something. It's the oft-discussed issue of artistic license. In film after film that we discuss around here they get blasted for this and that scene that stretches the limits of plausibility. This scene, or possibly the accumulation of similar such scenes, incurs our disapproval, dislike, hatred, etc. of the film.

The notion of artistic license is that we forgive a film this or that flaw because as a whole it is such a superior and outstanding piece.

In Sexy Beast I didn't buy into Teddy letting Gale go. Not believable. Period. And this is a pretty HUGE moment in terms of our protag, is it not? Anyway, they did a good job of finessing it (Teddy was duly pissed, and he offered that explanation that had he (Teddy) "given a solitary fvck" about Don...).

Anyway, I totally dug the film. The definition of lean and stylish (only 88 minutes). Good use of flashbacks too.

[English Dave]

Without doubt the best Brit flick of the last 20 years. Because it wasn't a typical Brit flick, it was a noir in the best traditions.

[elephant1978]

Sal,

I think the thing with Teddy letting Gale go is that as long as the job was a success, it didn't matter if Don was alive or not. I don't think they ever set up Teddy and Don as good buddies.

When the job was a success, Teddy let Gale live. But only gave him a "tenner" as a way of keeping power, showing him who's boss, keeping the fear.

Ele...

[English Dave]

sexy beast is 'house of sand and fog' but even darker. way past even the darkets movies that come to mind. ben kingsley is sonny corrleon with micheals patience. he's a guy who would literally do anything no matter how morally bankrupt, even for these people. he was a terminator.

it was as deliberate a movie as i've ever seen. once kingsley got into that compound the entire movie was filmed at the speed in which kingsley explained his motives. the movie litterally was filmed as he acted.

it didn't care about so many of the 'don'ts.

PAUSES -- i mean we just sat and thought it out like the characters would. we lived it realtime, not movie time. that was a brilliant thing and completely made this experience one of the best i've had at a movie.

i've had people tell me the movie never started and it was kind of pointless. sure, it's pointless to everyone but those five people. it was RESEVOIR DOGSsq.

it's so much more than a movie, but an expression of personal spirit.

vig

Yep. Totally agree Vig. And ditto - House of sand and Fog was pointless unless you invest yourself in personal spirit. Kingsley is a genius. My definition of a genius actor is one who recognises genius writing.

[elephant1978]

Yeah, but Kingsley does have a Uwe Boll movie coming out.

Ele...

[English Dave]

Yeah, but Kingsley does have a Uwe Boll movie coming out.

Ele...

Never seen an Uwe Boll movie. I gather they are bad? But maybe he didn't write the script? Either that or Kingsley has a tax bill due :)