Filth - 2013 ***

'Filth' is a bit of a conundrum. James McAvoy is literally acting his heart out (he can even vomit on que) and going for gold here, but even so, it comes across as a bit of a dirty film. Not dirty as in rude (although there is plenty of sex to placate any hardcore fan) but dirty as in unkempt and uncared for.

McAvoy plays a womanizing, chauvinistic, alcoholic Detective in Edinburgh, who spends his days playing 'pranks' on colleagues (including defaming their character on the bathroom wall), drinking, getting high, sleeping with anything that moves, and generally being a manipulative and unpleasant bastard. 

Hoping to move up the corporate scale, he is assigned a murder case, but becoming increasingly detached and hallucinatory as time goes by until he (and we the audience) have no idea what is real and what is fantasy. As the film progresses we learn some disturbing secrets about him, and the lengths he will go to hide them from everyone. 

I can't say I hated the film. It was entertaining, and I commend James on a very difficult and uncomfortable role. But it's certainly not a film to watch unless you specifically want to feel unnerved and awkward.