Sexy Beast (2001)
Grade: A-
Cast: Ray Winstone, Ben Kingsley, Ian McShane, Amanda Redman, Cavan Kendall
Director: Jonathon Glazer
Rated R for pervasive language, strong violence, brief sexuality/nudity.

From the moment he walks on the screen, we are terrified of Don Logan. Ben Kingsley plays him with a brilliant precision, but we are never really thinking that we are watching a performance, or even a movie; during all of “Sexy Beast”, we feel more like the friend of the guy who is carrying on a conversation with a killer—we are not the center of the psycho’s attention, and we are fervently hoping we won’t screw up badly enough to become so.

Any film able to conjure that kind of emotional reaction has to be a good one. And indeed “Sexy Beast” is a good one. It’s one of the most entertaining of 2001, actually. There are flaws (as demonic bunnies go, both the rabbit in the movie and the movie itself, “Donnie Darko”, is better), but “Sexy Beast” is just so good at provoking a playful fear within us, that I couldn’t help but forgive its problems. I’m not sure how it works as a FILM as opposed to a movie; it has little to no depth and is only intended to be seen as entertainment. I must, perhaps predictably, defend it as entertainment and just kind of forget that it isn’t “important”.

Gal (Ray Winstone) is retired. Retired. Retired, retired, retired. But Don Logan won’t take no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no for an answer; he was ordered to get Gal to say yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, and he won’t give up until he gets that answer. There’s this heist, see…ah, but I can’t ruin it. To spoil the plot would make the film less fun. Plus, it doesn’t really matter. The heist in “Sexy Beast” is merely an afterthought.

Curiously, despite its intensity, “Sexy Beast” is above all a comedy. The character of Don Logan does nothing funny, but he is always funny—probably because he’s so scary. The mood swings of the character are at once terrifying and hilarious; tell me you can sit there without being even a little bit amused as Logan switches from completely calm to a screaming psycho. If you can remind yourself that it is a movie, your fear turns to instant humor because…well, I can’t define it. I’m sure you’ve seen the Hannibal Lecter movies.

Thank God “Sexy Beast” isn’t some wannabe-twist-a-minute thriller like “Along Came A Spider” that throws a spin on established story conventions occasionally just because other films have gotten praise for the same kind of thing. Naw, “Sexy Beast” has a ‘plot twist’, if you really feel right calling it that, and it changes the way we think of certain characters, and it adds another level of intensity to what was already a multi-layered festival of intensity. But it isn’t a twist in the sense that “Unbreakable”’s ending was a twist; there is actual reason for this turn of events.

Performances like Ben Kingsley’s do not come around very often. Kingsley got a lot of recognition for his work here, although from some people I do not sense the attention was for his brilliance, but more for the fact that he was exercising versatility. Kind of like those who would blindly hand Tom Hanks an Oscar for “Road To Perdition” without realizing he is miscast. I can smile and frown, but that doesn’t mean I’m a genius. So many people mentioned the fact that this was the same guy who played Gandhi, but that wasn’t the real reason to be fascinated by it. Sure, it’s nice to know that Kingsley’s versatile, but that’s not why I love his work in “Sexy Beast”. What I love is the fact that he can get such a reaction from the audience. I wouldn’t care if he were playing a comedian or a grieving father—the point is that his effect on the audience is amazing. I mean, he’s a gangster…that’s cool, but it’s only the icing on the cake.

And Kingsley is only a supporting actor. The lead, Ray Winstone, is nowhere near as impressive, but he is pretty dern good. He’s the guy who’s talking to the serial killer—you know, our best friend—and he does a good job of not only being ready to piss his pants in sheer fear, but also being really tired of the whole ordeal. Winstone sometimes has to sigh with a mixture of frustration and weariness, and his frustrated and weary sighs hint at some interesting directorial tactics from Glazer, because how do you coach one to sigh so persuasively? His sighing is as versatile as Kingsley’s mood swings. Which means his sighs don’t make the movie, of course.

There are other actors here, but Kingsley almost makes Winstone invisible, so how can you expect me to have a memory extensive enough to analyze them, too?

As I hinted in the third paragraph, a third source of humor comes from the dialogue’s repetition. If the “Scary Movie” franchise were smart enough to satirize stuff like this, it could make for a wickedly funny joke, but it’s not, so it’s not. There is a lot of profanity in this film (the MPAA rightfully dubs it pervasive) but I wouldn’t be surprised if ‘no’, much to my bizarre delight, is uttered more than ‘fuck’. Also, look out for ‘yes’ and ‘fat fucking cunt’—you won’t be able to miss them.

The twist I’ve spoken of is more of the answer to one of the film’s mysteries than it is a “twist” by definition. But even more mysterious than this mystery (I’m working hard to conceal spoilers here) is the film’s title. I’m not sure if anyone in the film could be considered sexy (Winstone is slightly large and aging; Kingsley already HAS aged—he’ll be 59 in December 2002), and whether or not one is a beast is extremely subjective. I guess Kingsley’s a beast, but he ain’t sexy. Of course, sexiness is extremely subjective, too. But, in my opinion, Kingsley is not sexy. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.


-Alex, September 2002