Britainology 83: Sexy Beast (2000)

Re: what was considered "fat" in the 2000s: My wife and I are watching Lost right now, and holy shit, every woman on there is the skinniest thing I've ever seen. And obviously Hurley often functions as comic relief and has a whole arc about wanting to lose weight 🙄

There's an introduction by Ray Winstone to a BFI screening of Sexy Beast on Youtube, interestingly he says that what the script really captured for him was the difference between a gangster (Don Logan, Teddy), and a Thief (Gal).

Also, Don Logan is the Spain groups collective past. He has history with all of them, also he seems like the uncool kid that didn't fit in with the group because he was a psycho 😄 Gal impressed him with his physique and the birds loved him, his wife was a porn star, Jackie stuck her finger up my arse in the middle of all that, and H the useless cunt, to Don he wanted to fit in with them, he wants what they have, lying in your pool laughing at me! I won't let you be happy why should I!

The soundtrack is amazing by UNKLE I downloaded it back in the day off Napster or Kazaa I play the six connected UNKLE & South songs monthly at least! https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLG_LdUgn4Dj1KzYJzHWQaOSVWSLNeR5ZM&si=sZSEdV9LgZu5vgO4 Suckin, fucking, waking, spankin, cocaine, camcorders, twas like ancient Rome

Also! Nate did you remember the end credits to Rules Of Attraction run backwards? Cause they’re all trapped in hell and everything is pointless. God that movie hates its characters so much I love it, and the angry, nihilistic synth score by tomandandy ALSO - the college BEE based it on was the same college that The Secret History was based on cause he and Donna Tarrit were friends as students. I think a minor character in TSH shows up in the movie

I have met multiple straight men who watch this film and just miss that Ian McShane character is fucking the posh guy which is wild since he’s playing it so …bitchy? That’s what a mean older gay guy sounds like.

Ben Kingsley is also half Indian. Whichever side of his family that racist grandma was on it couldn't have helped

Me unable to see Ian McShane as anyone other than Lovejoy made this at least 65% more funny.

I think about the line in the scene where they do in Ben Kingsley and as they’re beating his ass he yells at Gal’s wife “YOUVE FUCKED HUNDREDS ”, at least once a week. So fucking funny.

Ben's character also resembles Begbie, so I think we should class it as a particularly British kind of psychosis rather than an English one. Also, trainspotting when.

"I'm afraid I'm gonna have to turn this opportunity down." "No, you're gonna have to turn this opportunity YES."

The sex photos in the safe deposit box is a reference to a conspiracy theory about the 1971 Baker Street robbery, which holds that the heist was committed by/at the behest of MI-5, who were attempting to retrieve photos of Princess Margaret having sex with several Jamaican men while on holiday on the island, which were (supposedly) being used to blackmail the Princess or the royal family. This was all dramatized in The Bank Job, which is a good Jason Statham film but a lower tier British heist movie.

The Rules of Attraction, what a picture.

NONONONONONONONONO! NONONONONONONONONO! NO! NOT THIS TIME NOT THIS FACKIN' TIME NO FACKIN WAY NO FACKIN WAY NO FACKIN WAY! You made me look a right CUNT!

Can you do episode on 777 How a bet on Everton engulfed a football investor and its financial backers https://on.ft.com/3WUTw9V

Ray Winstone almost deserves a whole episode to himself as a distillation of pure geezerdom

Vanderbeeks character is supposed to be Patrick Bateman's little brother in Rules of Attraction.

lol I literally rewatched this on a whim like 48 hours ago. Great minds etc etc

Only American film that I can think of are Coen Brothers films, Fargo and Miller's Crossing.

Ian Wright calls Gary Neville ‘Gal’ all the time

Kingsley is terrifying in this film. An absolute nightmare nutter - the scene where he works himself up to a frenzy then goes and punches Ray Winston in the face while he's sleeping stuck with me for ages

could the purple guy have colloidal silver poisoning?

Thank you for bringing me back to being a film minor in college in the early 2000's when I wrote a year-end paper on the use of creepy bunny costumes in independent film. Sexy Beast and Donny Darko both preceded, if to rather different effect, by Gummo...

I like to think of myself who can follow films without subtitles fairly easily. I turned them on as soon as Aitch showed up, couldn’t understand a word of the geezer dialect.

For American crime movie focused more on psychology, I'd recommend A Place Beyond the Lines with Ryan Gosling, Bradley cooper and Ray Liotta in. Covers a few interesting topics including police corruption and all sorts.

https://www.discogs.com/master/137260-The-Source-7-Featuring-Candi-Staton-You-Got-The-Love

Isn't it this song??

re: the Candi Staton/Frankie Knuckles "You Got The Love (DJ Eren Original Bootleg)" mash-up: it actually charted in the UK at #4 in 1991.

Yes! Brilliant Ben Kingsley villain performance in this film I keep trying to get everyone and their cats to watch, with minimal success. It is relieving to discover other people who even watched this, let alone harbour opinions on it! -~- wait, is Under the Skin a planned future episode? is this is a Jonathan Glazer journey??