Watching Filth, I noticed a few things. One, I felt increasingly as the film progressed that a good long shower was in my immediate future, and two, that those cunning crystal blue eyes of James McAvoy serve the same purpose in all his films. To absolutely mesmerize. While it’s more often to steal the hearts of females everywhere, in Filth, those eyes hypnotize all, hiding the evil of a man intent on getting what he wants.

From the same crusty mind who brought the world the novel Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh, comes Filth, adapted for the screen and directed by Jon Baird. McAvoy plays Bruce Robertson, a detective with his eye on a promotion to Detective Inspector. When a juicy murder comes up, he’s assigned the lead on the case. In order to assure his lead on the promotion, Robertson starts to attack his competition with coy tricks to drive them mad, expose their secrets and generally make himself look better. The depths of his malice know no bounds and Bruce is driven by the belief that this promotion will bring his broken family back together, since his wife left with their daughter. Even his one and only friendship, with Bladesey (Eddie Marsan) a meek man from Bruce’s masonic lodge, is one of undeserved manipulation and bullying.

Bi-polar and maintaining a pretty heavy drug addiction throughout, Bruce’s focus on messing with the lives of his co-workers begins to deter from his investigation and as things begin to unravel for him the story leads to a twist ending where he is faced with an even more unsettling truth about himself.

Currently available to stream VOD, I highly recommend using subtitles when watching Filth. The Scottish accents are pretty stinkin’ heavy, not to mention their expressions aren’t ones Americans are likely to be familiar with. McAvoy does an excellent job with the role–a truly hideous but engaging persona to watch. His complete lack of a moral compass makes him interesting, but ultimately the shift in plot at the tail end of the film attempt to give him a humanity that just doesn’t seem deserved. A sub-plot involving a woman (Downton Abbey‘s Joanne Froggatt) whose husband’s life Bruce is unable to save–in the one time in the film he acts like a cop–is too intermittent to make us care for him. And the film’s ending, while somewhat unexpected, leaves no real satisfaction.

But that seems to be Welsh’s intent (if indeed the film follows the novel). Baird’s film deserves some distinction for its gritty cartoonish (and indeed there are actual cartoons in the film) visuals, and watching McAvoy wreak havoc is certainly entertaining, but it’s not likely to make the same splash Trainspotting made. The dark humor is too dark at points, while abandoned altogether at others, and the revelations aren’t enough to explain things satisfactorily.

McAvoy pulls his weight, but it’s not enough to push this filth to the top of the trash heap.

Tyrannosaur is the first feature film by actor Paddy Considine (Submarine) who switched up his traditional role for writer and director on this film. It is a dark look into a lonely man whose life is filled with drinking and anger that at times can be hard to watch. Tyrannosaur is this year’s feel bad movie of the year (tied maybe with We Need to Talk About Kevin) that does not offer much for hope nor does it shy away from domestic violence and abuse. Domestic abuse is one of the scariest horrors in film, because it is the most realistic kind.

To say that Joseph (Peter Mullan) has anger management issues is a huge understatement. There are random moments where his anger explodes out of control. He will be the first to say that he is not a good human being. In the very first scene we see Joseph getting so upset with his dog he ends up kicking it to death. Shortly after that he shatters a store’s window with a rock without reason.

Joseph spends much of his time around local pubs where it is not uncommon for him to get into fights with other people. He is an Irish widower whose wife died of cancer. But you get the sense that his aggression has been with him his whole life.

One day Joseph stumbles into a charity thrift shop that a young lady named Hannah (Olivia Colman) runs. Hannah is a proud Christian and is quick to offer him a prayer knowing that his man is lost in this world. She is one that forgives easily or so it seems. Joseph is a little perplexed as to Hannah’s kindness to a total stranger.

On the outside Hannah has a happy-go-lucky attitude but there is more to her than meets the eye. That is until you see her eye is bruised one day as she is opening up the shop. When asked about it she lies and said she fell. In the back, she is seen taking swigs of alcohol.

She is more like Joseph than you would believe. However, she is not the one with the anger issues or the abuser but rather the abused. Just like when Joseph came to her when he was at his lowest point Hannah comes to him at hers. Maybe he sees the damage he has done in the past through her but even when you see his kindness shine through, it is not without boundaries.

As you probably have guessed the black eye was not caused by her falling. It came from her husband James (Eddie Marsan) who beat her after seeing her merely talking to Joseph. This is the kind of man who comes home drunk, urinates on her purposely as she pretends to sleep and ignore it. But everyone has a cracking point where enough is enough, Hannah is reaching hers quickly.

Peter Mullan is undeniably exceptional in his performance as Joseph in Tyrannosaur. His unrelenting anger sets the whole bleak tone of the film. When the time called for it, which was not often, he showed his character had some kindness to it. Olivia Colman was just as equally as impressive.

Tyrannosaur is a grim tell-it-how-it-is kind film that is more of a character study than plot based. It is a brutal film that does not reward you with much salvation or uplifting message. Instead, the reward is the amazing performances by the cast members. It is one you have to be in the right mood to see.