Sexy Beast (2000)

Nominated for 1 Academy Award*:

Best Supporting Actor: Ben Kingsley

(*nominated as a 2001 film, by release date)

 

This nominated performance from Ben Kingsley is one of the very few from the last 20 years that I hadn’t seen. Somehow I stayed away. Back in the day, the film was not accessible to me, and over the years I guess I didn’t bother because it seemed to me like a high-tension movie, uncomfortably so, and maybe not a fun sit-through. But I gave it a look now, with solid encouragement from the films that followed Jonathan Glazer’s directorial debut. This was his first film and he followed it with two cult classics: Birth with Nicole Kidman and Under the Skin with Scarlett. Two uncomfortable, auteur films.

Sexy Beast is not as out-there as those that followed, but it does have some striking images, creepy as fuck. Kingsley is not the lead, that would be Ray Winstone, in a convincing performance. But Kingsley IS the focus point of the film when he’s on screen, playing completely against type, as a calculated psycho everyone’s afraid of. It’s a good, convincing performance, with a lot of youthfulness to it, so he IS excellent, but hard to vote for, I imagine, since the character is so terrifying. 😊 A good film, and a strong debut.

 

I give it: 8/10

IMDB LINK