Review of Sexy Beast (2001) by Dawdlingpoet — 22 Nov 2021

This is a crime thriller film with themes featured including gangsters, heists and excesses in general. From the start, this film seemed quite stylish, with a definite gritty urban feel to it, though its set in spain and not London. The main character, Gal (the supposedly retired criminal) is very much of the London cockney-geezer-type variety - a lairy old lad, you could say. Ray Winstone was a good choice to play this role as he, I thought, did look the part quite well. He has a decent cocky swagger about him in any casea and seems like he could well be the blagging type. As I say its quite stylish, with an artistic element to some of the scenes, such as when Gal is apparently daydreaming, either that or re-living moments from his past (this isn't made entirely clear to the viewer). There are some quite sinister scenes which involve a strange, frightening looking creature, visually somewhat similar to the one in 'Donnie Darko', which I presume to be an early warning of the great danger and possible misfortune to come. The film makes good use of background incidental music to wrack up the tension, with loud bass lines played at times. It is pretty atmospheric and its fair to say that there's an amount of one-upmanship between characters, mainly Gal and Don.

Cast wise, aside from Ray Winstone; other cast members include Ben Kingsley as the deranged Don Logan - most certainly someone not to be messed with by any means - other characters look visibly nervous and anxious when around him and rightly so as we learn. It felt spooky and perhaps even menacing quite how casually he explains certain things which puts Gal on the back foot, something we would guess thats not easily achieved. Also present are Ian McShane as Teddy Bass and Amanda Redman, who plays Deedee Dove. McShane is also well cast as he also does well at portraying a character who is very self-assured. Due to these good performances, I'd say it is a relatively immersive film - both the cast/performances and the music help make this so.

Content wise, this film contains some sex references and a lot of very strong, sexually explicity language, plus of course strong violence, which is mostly via gunfire. Bloody injuries are shown. The film also has, of course, a somewhat frightening or worrying tone to it and the said creature appearing during dream sequences may scare younger people. Due to this, the film has been given an 18 rating in the UK.

This is more of a character driven film than a fast paced shoot 'em up type of action film, as the plot pace is quite slow but then I liked that it focussed on Gal and Don seemingly eyeing each other up and trying to second guess things. They are interesting characters, for their own reasons, which is hard to explain in much detail. It does well, as a film, at making you feel like anything could happen at little notice but never being sure quite when the proverbial line may be crossed and the proverbial may hit the fan, so to speak.

Some of the dialogue is relatively witty and sharp at times - its definitely an unsettling watch at times (which should be expected given the type of film it is). It also features some decent camerawork, with some shots filmed from high or low angles, showing various characters in different situations, their vulnerability made even more clear from the angles their shown from.

Yes, I'd recommend this film as I felt it was quite stylish and atmospheric, featuring a decent cast and a good use of music.