2. Filth
McAvoy is this film and all of its success is due to his transcendent performance as a man who’s a royally rotten human being and yet still worthy of our empathy. A piggish, bigoted misogynist, there’s very little to root for regarding this character yet McAvoy manages to spin our expectations but demonstrating the vulnerabilities that lie dormant underneath his projected, towering persona. He’s a mess, physically and psychologically and McAvoy makes sure that the audience knows this from the first second he appears onscreen, keeping us wondering what’s real and what’s put upon. Physically abrasive in one turn and then able to present him a cowering mess in the next, Filth showcases that emotional duality that he mastered long ago.
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