Blu-ray Review – Filth (2013)
Based on the Irvine Welsh novel set in Scotland, we follow the booze and drug fuelled rollercoaster that is Bruce Robertson (James McAvoy). Robertson is an Edinburgh Detective Sergeant who is juggling his addictions with a serious murder case and hatching evil schemes against his fellow Sergeants, making him the forerunner for the upcoming promotion to Detective Inspector.
Filth is exactly what you would expect it to be – possessing a very dark sense of humour chock full of swearing, sex and plenty of ‘ching! (cocaine). It is a great film, purely because we won’t see another film like this in years to come! It’s refreshing to giggle and laugh at something so vile and twisted.
The on screen chemistry between James McAvoy and Jamie Bell (The Adventures Of Tintin) is great; “The Beast” integration scene on the “schemes” is a brilliant piece of banter. Many are placing this as McAvoy’s best work and it could possibly be that. Glasgow born McAvoy is known for some big roles, he’s portrayed the young Charles Xavier in X-Men: First Class and again in its forthcoming sequel. For his serious work, the boy has had several nominations as Best Actor for his leading roles in Atonement and The Last King Of Scotland, so to say Filth is McAvoy’s best work, that is huge!
Whilst McAvoy’s performance steals the movie, I have to give props to Eddie Marsan (The World’s End), his portrayal as the almost pitiful Bladesey is spot on! He’s the only innocent bugger in this film and he gets put through some horrible, horrible stuff – he’s more or less a beloved punching bag for Bruce.
High Def enthusiasts beware! Flith is grainy and I think it needs to be like this. This isn’t Steven Spielberg. Notable scenes like Bruce and Bladesey going to Hamburg, the nightlife scenes are as rough as a scene from Scorsese’s Taxi Driver – which I think is a wise choice; this is one film that shouldn’t look polished, I don’t want to see the deep fried Mars Bar sweating out of McAvoy’s pores!
Special Features on the Blu-ray release include Outtakes which I expected to be as outrageous as the film, but they’re actually rather bland. There are four Deleted Scenes, mostly additional scenes from the book which are out-of-context from the film’s main plot, but the most notable Deleted Scene is Bruce attempting to film some inter-species erotica in the countryside as well as a cameo appearance from Irvine Welsh back in Edinburgh.
The disc also comes with three interviews with James McAvoy, director Jon S. Baird and of course author Irvine Welsh. Jon’s interview is particularly interesting as he details the story of how he was introduced to the novel and years later meeting Welsh and proposing his ideas for the feature film.
Overall – it’s bloody filthy and I loved it!