Review of Filth (2013) by Isaiah W — 11 Nov 2014

Filth somewhat feels like the cop version of the 1993 film, Naked. The film follows dirty cop James McAvoy who's trying to get a promotion in his company, during this period he's "solving" a murder & a prank call case all while trying to get laid and sabotaging his co-workers. There's an early scene where he's evaluating all the coworkers and their chances at getting the promotion, his group involved an inexperienced rookie, a dimwit, a metro sexual, a junkie, a man whore, ect. This is one of the early moments where you can see the common theme of repression. James McAvoy does a great job as detective Bruce Robertson, and shows how all these aspects apply to him. This theme later comes back about his wife, which I found rather under whelming. I predicted this twist before we even knew who McAvoy was, perhaps my familiarity with this sort of reveal through Polanski's film The Tenant gave it away.

The film is a comedy, and it has great dark and filthy humor. The c*ck comparison scene had my dying. While the humor is black the background story is even darker. While Bruce's trips look like something from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, they do reveal some dark truths about him. Led by McAvoy's tremendous acting this is a worth while film, compared to the other Welsh adaptions I've seen I'd rank it under Acid House but above Trainspotting. Dark, funny, and surreal.