Title: Sexy Beast

Year: 2000

Country: UK, Spain

Language: English, Spanish

Genre: Crime, Thriller

Director: Jonathan Glazer

Writers:

Louis Mellis

David Scinto

Music: Roque Ba?os

Cinematography: Ivan Bird

Cast:

Ray Winstone

Ben Kingsley

Ian McShane

Amanda Redman

Cavan Kendall

James Fox

Julianne White

álvaro Monje

Rating: 7.4/10

Let’s assume you are a casting director, there are two roles: one is Gal, a retired safe-cracker enjoying the life of Riley in a beatific villa in Spain with his wife and friends; and the other is his former criminal associate Don Logan, a browbeating, invective-pelting psychopath who wills to recruit him to a new job and will not take no for answer. Then you are given two candidates: Mr. Gandhi himself, Sir. Ben Kingsley and a bovver heavy Ray Winstone, the choice is rather self-evident.

However, that is not the case for UK scenester Jonathan Glazer when he begins to work on his feature film debut SEXY BEAST, who does the obverse, fingers Mr. Winstone for the hapless Gal and Mr. Kingsley for the rivetingly menacing Don Logan, a delectable volte-face rewardingly earns him an Oscar nomination, meantime, Winstone also magnificently brings about an incarnation very different from his usual image, a rough diamond type, graced by the lovey-dovey intimacy between him and his wife DeeDee Dove (Redman), an erstwhile porn star.

It is a taut iteration in the UK gangster genre, the story is nothing too sparkling, it is Glazer's swift and impressive execution takes the full credit. The harbinger arrives in its opening, a boulder falls right in into the swimming pool of Gal’s villa (which betrays a sloppy CGI burnished effort), while he is sunbathing under the blistering heat, this portends an impending threat which will disrupt the placidity and imperil those who cannot get away, Don Logan is coming to visit, and he will not be in a pleasant mood if he knows that Gal determines to decline his very generous offer. So sparks fly, but not without a droll war of (swearing) words and things will inevitably get physical, Kingsley’s intimidating presence deviously pays off the looming dread simply elicited by the mention of his name, and after an ironical turn of events, he does manage to press-gang Gal into partaking in the action however reluctant he is, to break into a bank vault via water pressure, The suspense isn’t swelling during the action, but after, when the head of the criminals, Teddy Bass (McShane, another great villain, less showier but infallibly lethal), a character turns out to be far more ruthless than Don Logan, bluffly tells Gal that “he knows what they did in Spain” and promises he will come to visit in the due future. Well, why there isn’t a sequel to this?

Parlaying his reputation as an eclectic music video director into this breakout debut, Glazer has concocted up a stunning-looking fare seeped with robust characterization, pulsating rhythm of montage, scintillating chromatic disposition and optimal pop taste, ultimately transmogrified it into a beguiling conglomerate ofromanticism, perversity absurdity and bloody gallows humor like an arch cautionary take:there is no easy way of going straight, so think twice before you get your feet wet!

ps. accompany pieces: Glazer’s UNDER THE SKIN (2013, 8.2/10); Guy Ritchie’s LOCK, STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS (1998, 7.9/10), SNATCH (2000, 7.1/10).

第八屆黑眼圈電影節(jié)在這個(gè)特殊的年景比較早的開(kāi)幕了，第一觀影日為我們帶來(lái)的是英國(guó)導(dǎo)演喬納森.?格雷澤的《性感野獸》。 片子一開(kāi)始很有地中海風(fēng)情的，非常適合我們這個(gè)在暑期開(kāi)幕的非主流電影節(jié)的時(shí)間節(jié)點(diǎn)，作為開(kāi)場(chǎng)小菜，就憑片頭和開(kāi)始一段基本完成了他作為開(kāi)幕影片的作用。 開(kāi)頭兒的地中海風(fēng)情再加上這個(gè)片名，我以為這片子要走熱帶風(fēng)情性感大趴體的路線（這也是我們特別期待看到的）。不過(guò)后面情節(jié)顯然也證明了黑眼圈電影節(jié)選片的調(diào)性注定不會(huì)那么可愛(ài)的乏味。感情這片子是一反高潮的非主流黑幫片，片名“性感野獸”斷句兒不是你想當(dāng)然的“性感的野獸”，而是“性感和野獸”，或者是“一點(diǎn)兒也不性感倒霉催的曾經(jīng)的野獸”。 片子用大篇幅描寫(xiě)了搪瓷盆洗手的前江洋大盜怎么憋憋屈屈的又被拉下水的故事。黑幫傳話人本?金斯利表演奔放，令人印象深刻。故事刻意把怎么被拉下水作為重點(diǎn)的安排也很有意思，緊張感制造的不錯(cuò)，讓我想起了福爾摩斯探案集中的《四簽名》。兩個(gè)女演員風(fēng)韻猶存，也是片中亮色。不過(guò)總體來(lái)講要是推薦的話我更推薦格雷澤的另一個(gè)片子《重生》。 開(kāi)胃小菜表現(xiàn)尚可，清涼爽口為后面的片子打打底也挺好。拍黃瓜怎么就不能當(dāng)頭盤(pán)兒上，畢竟人家可沒(méi)擱芝麻醬，而是點(diǎn)了幾滴芥末油兒給你端上來(lái)的……

2020.7.15