Filth

The works of Irvine Welsh have always tackled addiction in the most confronting ways. Filth is no different. It has all the hallmarks of an Irvine Welsh story; the snappy dialogue, the scathing commentary on Scottish life and the drugs. Oh, those drugs.

Bruce Robertson (James McAvoy) is a Detective Sergeant in the Edinburgh with high aspirations. After the murder of a Japanese student, he is offered the position of Detective Inspector if he solves the crime. Meanwhile, he sabotages the efforts of his colleagues, who are also after the position, and makes the life of his Masonic brother, Bladesey (Eddie Marsan), hell.

Underneath all the madness, Filth is a pretty funny movie. Bruce is a horrible person, but he is also charming as hell and it's easily understandable how he gets away with things that he does. This is made more apparent by McAvoy's excellent portrayal of the character. McAvoy possesses the right amount of skill to play such a character. His chemistry with the rest of the cast, in particular Marsan, is electric. Never before has there been a more reprehensible corrupt police officer portrayed on film (Harvey Keitel is still playing catch up in my book). Much like how Daniel Craig played a likeable villain before he scored the role of James Bond, I see the same future for McAvoy.

The rest of the cast did a superb job, although they were all relegated to minor characters next to the powerhouse that is Bruce Robertson. Jamie Bell (of Billy Elliott fame) did a superb job of playing rookie cop Ray Lennox, Imogen Poots is fantastic as rival detective Amanda Drummond and stalwart of British cinema, Jim Broadbent is hilarious as Dr. Rossi, who I think was supposed to be Australian, but I'm not sure.

Verdict: All in all an entertaining journey into the messed up mind of a coke addicted cop who needs some serious help. Also has a great cameo with David Soul, who was the original Hutch in the Starsky and Hutch TV series.

The Counselor

The works of Cormac McCarthy have always served as interesting fodder for film adaptations. Indeed both No Country for Old Men and The Road translated his vision perfectly to the screen. However, The Counselor is an entirely original script from him and when you couple that with an immensely visual director, such as Ridley Scott, you get a beautiful film that also has extreme depth and meaning just underneath the surface.

The film is set in the southern United States and it follows The Counselor (Michael Fassbender) as he descends into the drug fuelled world of the Mexican cartels. After a shipment that he had a stake in is stolen, he ends up going on the run, as the cartel behind the other half of the investment believes he is responsible.

The film has many themes and they all seem to be complementary of one another. The largest ones are those of greed and actions and consequences. The Counselor is driven to do many of the things that he wants, primarily by greed. What he wants most is to please his girlfriend Laura (Penelope Cruz) and we can only assume that she is the reason he has driven himself toward this path. That greed also goes hand in hand with the consequences that are a direct result of the actions that he has taken.

All this depth and meaning stems from a superb script from McCarthy. Unlike the other adaptations that I mentioned earlier, whose screenplays had been written by other writers, The Counselor has the unique voice of McCarthy, who has written some wonderfully cryptic dialogue scenes that also appear in his literature.

This film is also spectacular to look at as well and that is largely due to Ridley Scott's amazing vision as a director. The landscapes in the film are amazing, showcasing Mexico and Texas on an intimate scale that I really appreciated.

Finally, the cast of this film is not be forgotten. I know looking at the poster, all you see are the big names and just think it's going to be an empty film. But all the actors are fantastic. I especially want to give praise to Cameron Diaz, as I have not seen her reach a level such as this since Being John Malkovich in 1999. There is also a scene that has cameos from Dean Norris (Hank in Breaking Bad) and John Leguizamo (Luigi in Super Mario Bros., and a ton of other stuff) that I found humourous for some reason.

Verdict: An intense and compelling crime drama that is sure to make you scared of cheetahs and girls on Ferraris.