Hello, again! Sarah is back, and I’ve been upgraded from girlfriend to fiancée!

My movie this week was Filth (2013) and boy howdy was it wild! We start off by seeing a beautiful blonde (Carole, Shauna Macdonald) getting ready in her house, with a very seductive film noir feel to the scene. She offers the advice that, in order to keep a healthy marriage and retain that spark in their bedroom, she plays the ultimate tease to her husband Bruce (James McAvoy). Apparently, Bruce isn’t allowed to lie with her until after he gets promoted from Detective Sergeant to Detective Inspector. She dons a jacket over her slip and leaves the house, only to witness a murder in the subway.

We cut over to Bruce having an internal monologue to the glory of Scotland, while panning over a pregnant woman smoking, and other clips of the reality of Scotland, including a small child flipping him off. In response, Bruce takes the child’s balloon and releases it into the sky. And for someone who loves Scotland, he sure does hate the bagpipes!

The entire time, Bruce is talking with so much confidence about himself and the promotion that it isn’t hard to dislike him right off the bat. We then cut to  a meeting with the other Detectives and the Chief (Toal, John Sessions), and are blessed to hear his internal thoughts of everyone in the room, including how likely they are to get the promotion, what blackmail he has on them, and how he plans to sabotage each of them personally. The actual meeting is about the murder in the subway that Carole witnessed, and while the case is assigned to Bruce, it is never once mentioned that his wife was a witness.

In a stakeout trailing someone suspected of having intel on the murder, we see said person pulling along a girl in a school uniform who looks very uncomfortable. Bruce’s partner on the stakeout (Lennox, Jamie Bell) comments on how attractive the highschooler is, and Bruce shames him for lusting after a minor. They follow the couple to a motel room and interrupt them having sex. While Lennox is with the potential informant, Bruce goes into the room where the highschooler is in bed, naked, covering herself with a blanket. He finds her ID and threatens to tell her respected lawyer of a father what she’s been up to unless she gives him a blowjob, which she does. He then complains about her technique, hits her, and says he’ll tell her father regardless. When he rejoins Lennox in the hall, they proceed to tell the informant that they will lie in court that he was raping an eight year old child unless he gives them the information they want, sending him int enough distress to trigger an asthma attack, and withholding his inhaler unless he cooperates. He obviously complies.

Our next scene is Bruce being choked out during a romp with Estelle (Joy McAvoy) and yes, you read that correctly; the actress is James McAvoy’s real-life sister. While fucking, Bruce pictures Carole and also pictures a man with a pig’s head at the foot of the bed. Estelle is pissed that he called out Carole’s name, and he threatens to tell her husband (Lexo, Jordan Young) about their affair if she doesn’t stop complaining, while telling her that his love for her is only physical.

At the precinct, Bruce chats up Gillman (Brian McCardie) who is described as being a Nazi, but gets angry when Gillman asks about Carole and their daughter, Stacey (Megan Finn). Instead, Bruce mingles with Gus (Gary Lewis) who he describes as having an incredibly low IQ, and convinces him that the other detectives are cutthroat and trying to sabotage Gus’ chance at the promotion by spreading rumors about him.

On the street, Bruce entertains himself by harassing a homeless man about how harsh the coming winter will be, and how the man will likely freeze to death. He’s interrupted by a woman screaming the name Colin, and he runs over to perform CPR on the man, where he has a flashback to performing CPR on a child covered in soot. He then goes to see a doctor about having medications refilled and swears he’s quit drinking and doing drugs, which are both lies. While drinking later that day, we see him jerking it to some woman-on-woman action, but when a man enters the scene, he switches the channel to what appears to be either a gameshow or a children’s show. Mimicking the voice of the host, he calls a woman named Bunty (Shirley Henderson) and sexually harasses her.

At a formal ceremony for the Masonic Lodge he’s a member of, he speaks with Bladesey (Eddie Marsan) about how Bladesey’s wife, Bunty, is being relentlessly harassed and police have been unable to catch the culprit. Toal is also a member of the Lodge, and assigns Bunty’s case to Bruce, as Bladesey is a hefty benefactor to the Lodge. When introduced to Bunty to hear her side of things and advise her on the situation, he encourages her to indulge the caller, and even to tell the creep what gets her going.

Back at the precinct, Toal gives the subway murder case to Amanda (Imogen Poots) who Bruce suspects of sleeping with every man in the station. Toal’s logic is that Bruce will be away on a trip with the Masons, and needs to focus on Bunty’s caller. The arrangement is supposed to be temporary, but incites Bruce nonetheless. In a rage, Bruce tells Gus that Amanda is absolutely fucking Toal.

Remember the informant? He gave them a lead on a suspect, who works at a flower shop. When Bruce gets there, he sees “DAD” spelled out in an arrangement, and pauses to put one of the flowers back that had fallen out. When face to face with the suspect (Stephanie, Bobby Rainsbury), he calls one of the murderers her boyfriend, which she denies and states he’s a casual acquaintance from the club scene. Stephanie then swears she’s seen Bruce somewhere before, and asks why she recognizes him. He vehemently denies she would’ve ever seen him, and hurries out of the shop, bumping into a blonde woman in funeral attire. Turns out, this is Colin’s wife Mary (Joanne Froggatt), and she’s here to pick up the “DAD” flowers. She asks if he’s ever lost someone close, and he tears up while confirming he has. For once, this asshole seems to actually be speechless. He has another flashback to the soot-covered boy, whose name we learn is Davey (Jake Wilson). In the mirror, his reflection has the face of a pig, which frightens him into snorting even more coke.

While high off his ass, he hallucinates a session of therapy with Dr. Rossi (Jim Broadbent), who he swears to that he’s off of coke and gambling. The doctor asks him, “Who do we trust?” to which he replies, “No-one, of course,” and the doctor agrees but adds, “Especially not yourself,” before handing him a giant bottle of drugs.

In the precinct bathroom Bruce writes “Peter Inglis sucks cocks!!!” and then immediately goes into the general office and informs Inglis (Emun Elliott) of the graffiti. He specifically tells Toal, in front of everyone, under the guise of being concerned for the harassment of his fellow officer, assuring everyone knows the rumor of Inglis’ suspected homosexuality.

At a club with Lennox, a working girl hands them over DNA samples from two of the suspects in the murder case. He then pressures her into fucking Lennox and talks about what a swell guy he is. The very next scene, Lennox has her as his date to the office Christmas party. Bruce mentions an old hazing ritual where the men, one at a time, would go into the copy room and photocopy their dicks, and the gals would match each cock to the correct man. The precinct actually does this. His is obviously the biggest dick, and he fucks Lennox’s date on what I believe is Toal’s desk.

In a club bathroom, he pays a man who looks very stereotypically gay to recognize Inglis in front of the other officers, and the man really sells the part, even claiming that Inglis is known for being shy about their “relationship” in public. The group outing devolves into Inglis blaming the bathroom graffiti on Gillman, and a fist fight happens. Back at the precinct, Toal tells Bruce privately that he finds homosexuality completely disgusting, and claims he can’t have confidence in a man who’s “constantly undressing you with his eyes,” which honestly says more about how sleazy Toal is than anything else.

Carole, back in another sexy film noire scene, states she and Bruce play some break-up/make-up games to help keep the bedroom alive. She states nothing can actually break their holy communion.

On a trip with his fellow Masons, Bruce sneaks into Bladesey’s room in the dead of night, breaks the man’s glasses, and tosses them into a river. Just to set him up for chaos at the museum the next day, where Bladesey knocks over a display and sets off an alarm. Bruce then takes him to a gentleman’s parlor and sets him up with a whore, and roofies him. Bladesey has a very bad trip, and while hiding in the bathroom, Bruce’s reflection is once again a pig head. The next day, Bruce sees Carole on the street and frantically approaches her, only to realize it’s a completely different blonde woman. The next scene, he’s waking up naked on his marble floor to a call from the precinct, as he’s already very late for work.

When he finally gets in, Toal tells him the murder case stays with Amanda, and berates Bruce for not following up on the blonde witness. Bruce leaves the office in a fury, only to run into Mary and her son, who she tells that Bruce is a hero, and encourages the boy to be like Bruce when he grows up. She gifts Bruce a handmade scarf, and he gives her his phone number and address, telling her to come by any time she needs.

While high with Lennox, the young detective tells Bruce he’s applying for the promotion, and Bruce, clearly blindsided as he hadn’t thought Lennox was actually a threat, warns him to be wary of Gus.

Carole is once again talking about how irresistible she is, and how Bruce can’t have her until his promotion goes through. At this point, I realize there hasn’t been a single scene of them together. However, Bruce is rewatching old home videos of her and Stacey in the kitchen. Crying, he once again calls Bunty, who this time plays along while he masturbates furiously through his tears.

Dr. Rossi, in another session of cocaine therapy, sings a song about how Carole left Bruce for a man named Steven.

Noir Carole monologues about Bruce bringing her out of her shell, how their sex clubs helped her find herself, and with an expressionless face sings love songs with a taxi driver without ever taking her eyes off the road before them.

With all his cocaine binges and crashes, Bruce is tired enough to doze at work. Gillman stomps in, ranting about how his wife left him, and Gus can’t contain his excitement for Christmas, which only pisses off Bruce and Gillman. Bruce looks at Gus, and sees an elephant for a head. Toal is furious Bruce has made zero progress with the Bunty calls, and Bruce decides to blame Bladesey.

He sees Davey standing before him, and swears “it wasn’t my fault.”

Bladesey brings him a Christmas gift of booze, and Bruce insists they drink together. Once Bladesey is drunk off his ass, Bruce turns the channel to the gameshow and encourages Bladesey to impersonate the host, catching the attempts on a tape recorder in his pocket. Bruce then goes to see Bunty, and they fuck. In the middle of it, he sees Bunty’s face as a bird, panics, and tells her Bladesey’s been harassing her, playing the tape recorder as evidence.

Dr. Rossi reveals to us that Davey is actually Bruce’s older brother, who was loved more by their father. Apparently, Bruce convinced Davey to play in the coal mine with him, and pushed his brother to his death. Dr. Rossi’s head morphs into that of an alien creature, and Bruce wakes in the women’s bathroom of the precinct. When Amanda expresses concern for him, he very nearly gets physically violent with her. Sitting down with her on the stairs, he finally admits aloud that Carole has left him. In his moment of vulnerability, Amanda’s face is that of an ugly witch, and Bruce immediately begins yelling at her about how she stole his case.

He, still in an awful mood, goes to visit Bladesey in a holding cell, where he proceeds to beat the shit out of the innocent man he framed, during which Bladesey’s face becomes a lamb.

Later, Estelle tells him that her husband discovered their affair and tried to unalive himself. Bruce hits her, she chokes him, and they angrily fuck. I would like us to all remember that these two are siblings in the real world.

The opening scene of Carole getting ready starts again, but this time it’s revealed that this is actually Bruce wearing her clothes and going out on the town dressed as her.

He’s found by the group of murderers, and tells them that his husband is a detective. They very easily kidnap him, and Stephanie taunts that she knew she’d recognized him at the flower shop. While strapped to a chair in a warehouse, Bruce gets up and charges one of the murderers. They tussle, and then make out, before Bruce throws him through a window. Peter and Amanda stand over him in the warehouse, and he tells them this was his attempt at keeping Carole close. Toal not only withdraws Bruce’s application for the promotion, but promotes Lennox, whose face is a rooster. Lennox tells him they’re arresting Bladesey for the Bunty calls, but calls Bruce “Frank,” which is the alias he used while making the calls.

In a grocery store, picking out a bottle of wine, Bruce sees the actual Carole in the checkout line. When they make eye contact, he calls for Stacey, but the man with them pulls them away quickly while giving Bruce a look of disdain. He bumps into Mary and drops the bottle of wine. He begs her not to leave.

Playing a voicemail that Mary left, asking if she and her son can come by his house on their way to the parks, Bruce gets dressed in a formal uniform. He disposes of every bit of alcohol in the house, and records a video for Bladesey in which he tells the man to ditch his glasses, to not be as soft, that Bladesey is honestly his best friend, and that he needs to make Bunty want him again. After the recording ends, we see Bruce bring a chair into the middle of the floor and tie Mary’s scarf to the beam above him. Mary and her son come by, and as soon as their shadows leave his doorstep, Bruce hangs himself with her scarf. It then cuts to closing credits, with an animation that resembles a children’s show playing in the background, featuring the animals he saw people as during his crazed drug trips.

All in all, this movie does an amazing job capturing police corruption and brutality, the absolute batshit things people will do when they don’t remember what sober feels like, and what it is to experience psychosis. It made me uncomfortable, disgusted, and angry, and still somehow left me wondering if I should feel more empathy for a piece of shit whose world is actively crumbling around him.

-3 mallards /5

-Sarah

Hello readers of the blog! It’s London again. I know you guys have missed me. Sorry you’ve been stuck with Maxwell for so long – I’ve tried to get him to add some of my commentary to his reviews, but he doesn’t. Which is a shame because you guys are missing out, I think I am hilarious. 

Anyway, since August had 5 weeks, you guys get the pleasure of reading mine and Sarah’s reviews once more. This week we had to watch Filth (2013) directed by John S. Baird. I went into this with very little knowledge of this movie. All I knew was it was a psychological thriller. I was very excited that I knew more characters than I thought I would. I am obsessed with all of the It movies (mainly the miniseries), but I do love the remake and James McAvoy, the main character in Filth (2013), plays older Bill in It: Chapter Two (2019). Also, if you know me at all you know I love all things Harry Potter. Moaning Myrtle, played by Shirley Henderson, was instantly recognizable as soon as her character, Bunty, spoke. And, of course, there is the psychologist, played by none other than Jim Broadbent, also known in the Harry Potter franchise as Horace Slughorn. 

Let me get into the actual movie itself, which is difficult for me because I still can say with complete honesty I do not fully understand a single thing that was actually happening. In the beginning, we are introduced to a female character who seems to have no connection to the plot line for almost the entire movie up until the end when we find out it’s actually been Bruce the entire time. The entire movie, Bruce is trying to get a promotion at his job. He is a cop and is trying to help solve a murder case to get said promotion. Throughout the film, we just watch Bruce do crazy off the wall shit the entire time with no explanation as to why he is doing anything. 

He constantly mentions his wife and kid to other people and the others speak as if they know them. Which lead me to originally believe they were both dead and he killed them. That, however, was not the case. He does however, start seeing a bunch of crazy shit that made no sense. One of which, was a little dead boy who he calls “Davey”. The first time we see Davey is when he is doing CPR on a random man on the street. We later learn that Davey is Bruce’s little brother and was killed by Bruce when they were kids, which is basically what caused Bruce to become absolutely bonkers. When this is revealed, all I could think is “wow if I had a nickel for every time James McAvoy played a character who felt guilty for his younger brother dying”. 

This movie makes you feel like you’re crazy, which I guess is because Bruce himself is crazy. Honestly, I think I would have enjoyed this movie a lot more if there had been better explanation of WHY he was crazy. As I have already mentioned, the death of his brother is the beginning of his downward spiral. I did know that he felt guilty for his brother’s death but I somehow missed the explanation of what actually happened. However, it wasn’t until I was talking to Maxwell about it later that I was informed he pushed his brother down a slag pile. I completely missed this, so I guess this is viewer error and not an error of the film itself. 

Basically, we just watch Bruce run around and terrorize everyone, do a bunch of drugs and fuck a bunch of people with little to no knowledge of what’s actually wrong with him. He sets his best friend up as being a pervert and then fucks his wife, Bunty. Like last time, I watched this movie with my best friend, Kaley and to quote my favorite thing she said during the movie “I mean Myrtle was definitely Moaning”. He also starts hallucinating others and himself as barn animals which is so incredibly random. He finally comes to the realization that he’s nuts and that he thinks his family (wife and daughter) have left him. 

The only person he seems semi-normal around is a lady and her child. I mentioned earlier that the first time we see his little brother is when he is trying to save a guy. This guy does not make it, but the lady was the wife of this guy. He runs into her at a flower shop and then she comes by his work to bring him a scarf she knit for him. Spoiler, the scarf becomes important at the end of the film. 

Towards the end, we see Bruce seemingly understand that he is crazy, we find out he was the woman from the beginning all along and he also stumbles across his wife and child in the grocery store and they run away from him (rightfully so). Bruce feels trapped in his own mind and ends up using aforementioned scarf to take the only way out he can think of. 

Filth (2013) has a score of 7 out of 10 on IMDB, a Rotten Tomatoes tomatometer score of 66%, and a Letterboxd score of 3.5 out of 5. Personally, I think these ratings for this movie are way too high. However, I can see where someone who loves psychological thrillers would enjoy this movie a lot. I just felt like there were too many loose ends that needed to be tied up before the ending that were not. I also did not enjoy it that much because I was confused 90% of the time. I love watching movies with subtitles but if you don’t this movie is very difficult to follow without them because the characters are Scottish. I found myself wishing for it to end because I was just confused.

-1.5 mallards /5

-London