Nil by Mouth (1997)

A working class British family struggles with their demons -- sometimes violently -- in this intensely emotional drama that marked the directorial debut of actor Gary Oldman. Janet (Laila Morse) is a widowed factory worker who shares her home with her aged mother Kath (Edna Dore), her daughter Valerie (Kathy Burke), her son Billy (Charlie Creed-Miles), and Valerie's husband Ray (Ray Winstone). Ray is an unstable and out-of-work alcoholic who often uses his pregnant wife as a punching bag, while Billy is a drug addict whose habit has led Janet to throw him out of the house more then once, only to take him back later. Janet is uncertain about what to do when Ray's latest tirade sends Valerie to the emergency room, and Janet also has to come to terms with the financial and emotional costs of Billy's addiction. Kathy Burke, Ray Winstone, and Laila Morse all received prizes from the 1997 British Independent Film Awards for their work in Nil by Mouth; Burke also received Best Actress honors at that year's Cannes Film Festival.

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Review By Laura Abraham

Gary Oldman has been cast as everyone from Sid Vicious to a dreadlocked pimp, but his audience had yet to experience him so personally and so fully as in his directorial debut with Nil by Mouth. Dedicating the film "in memory of my father," Oldman opens the door to his life, ushers in the viewer, and then explodes all over the screen. This story is not for the weak at heart. Scripted by Oldman, it centers on a desperately poor South London family in the midst of unrelenting abuse, paying particular attention to the marital relationship between its two main characters, Val and Ray. Ray is an extremely violent man with a penchant for alcohol, and Ray Winstone's portrayal of him is utterly frightening -- at times impossible to watch -- while Kathy Burke shines as Val, a woman lost in exhaustive despair (Burke won Best Actress honors at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival). More than a movie about destruction and pain, Nil by Mouth is a movie about building oneself back up, and about the inner strength some people possess. These ideas are never made clearer than in the scene that follows a vicious beating that leaves Val almost unrecognizable. Val, her mother, and grandmother take comfort in each other, and as Val begins to dance with her grandmother, we realize this is the first time either lady has felt the comfort and warmth of another person in a very long time. This tenderness is ably captured by Oldman, who uses the camera as a way to shake out the ghosts of his past, let them be seen, and then forgive them.

Gangster No.1 (2000)

A portrait of a cold-blooded young gangster living and loathing in 1960s London, this drama features Malcolm McDowell in a major role in his first British picture in years. McDowell opens the film as the present day Gangster 55, who learns that an old associate, gangster Freddie Mays (David Thewlis), has just been released from prison after serving a 30-year sentence. The story then flashes back to 1968, when the young Gangster 55 (Paul Bettany) makes Mays' acquaintance and subsequently wins his trust by dealing with his enemies from a rival gang. The relationship between the two men is threatened when Mays falls for Karen (Saffron Burrows), a no-nonsense dancer. When 55 learns that Lennie (Jamie Foreman), a rival gang leader, plans to ambush Mays and Karen one night, he pits the two gangs against one another so that he can emerge as Gangster No. 1. The film was directed by Paul McGuigan, who previously examined the crusty underbelly of British society with his screen adaptation of Irvine Welsh's The Acid House (1998).

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Review By Donald Guarisco

The slick yet brutal take on the British gangster film doesn't add anything new to the canon but still manages to offer up a fairly interesting take on this genre. The narrative hook of Gangster No. 1 is that it never tries to make the title character sympathetic or humane: he remains chilly and brutal from start to finish. As a result, Gangster No. 1 is a tough film to warm up to but genre fans will find it worthwhile for a number a reasons. The first is its high caliber of performances: Paul Bettany cuts a dashing yet scary figure as the young Gangster 55, vividly bringing his quiet psychosis to life through a combination of icy glares and controlled bursts of rage, while Malcolm McDowell's work as the older version of this character stuns the viewer by utilizing considerable skill for bombast to create a man who has been ruined by his inability to show or feel human warmth. There is also some sharp supporting work from David Thewlis as the tough yet humane gangster that Gangster 55 fetishizes and Saffron Burrows as the good-hearted moll who suffers for her decision to stand by her man. Director Paul McGuigan lends a stylish eye to the tale using slick visuals, frenetic editing, and a jazzy John Dankworth score to effectively offset the brutal edges of his subject matter without ever softening it. He also pulls of some inspired stylistic flourishes, the best being a vicious murder whose gruesomeness is all suggested via point-of-view camerawork. The end result is a chilly but powerful experience that is not for sensitive viewers but is stylish and substantial enough to make a viewing worthwhile for crime movie buffs.

Rise of the Footsoldier (2007)

Julian Gilbey's fact-based crime saga Rise of the Footsoldier traces one man's meteoric ascension from a lucrative soccer career, through the ranks of organized crime, to the status of Britain's most omnipotent drug lord. The tale begins in the 1970s, when hooligan Carlton Leach (Ricci Harnett) finds himself implicated in a series of violent skirmishes on the soccer fields of England. Prompted to leave this activity and enter another trade, Leach self-incorporates as a company called ICF - a front for the young entrepreneur's drug-dealing activities. Soon, Carlton's business flourishes - first with cocaine, then with ecstasy and heroin (as time rolls forward from the self-serving 80s into the 1990s), but with it comes severe addiction and, disturbingly, wave after wave of nerve-wracking violence. More hardened, more severe criminals turn up to do business with Carlton's associates, forcing Carlton to recruit tougher and more psychopathic elements to protect himself - particularly when the goods from a heroin shipment disappear and Turkish thugs begin closing in.

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The Crew (2009)

As a major heist approaches and with betrayal all around him, a respected crime boss has to summon all his street nous and killer instinct as he fights for survival.

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Hit Parade (2010)

Ben 10 co-creator Joe Casey takes of the kid gloves to write and direct this irreverent action comedy about a retired hit man who is forced back into his old calling by a pair of overzealous Census Bureau agents. Jerome Archer laid down his guns years ago, and today he's perfectly content with his job as the manager of a retail bookstore. But when a trigger-happy assassin guns down an undercover CIA agent, Jerome is the only man with the skills to take the silence the loose cannon for good. Before long the situation turns critical, and the Census agents are dodging bullets from all sides. Now Jerome is left with one choice: embrace the killer lifestyle that he once abandoned, or find another way to get another fresh start, away from all the murder and mayhem.

Midnight Express (1978)

Story of a man who is caught smuggling drugs out of Turkey and thrown into prison.

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Review By Laura Abraham

Throughout this nightmarish tale of injustice, director Alan Parker never allows the audience's sense of fear and dread to wane. It is impossible to shake the feeling of insanity brought upon by the corrupt Turkish prison system, so vividly portrayed here. The murky, hazy camerawork further enhances the alienation. Though often unbearably frustrating and graphically violent, Midnight Express is an exceptional accomplishment from Parker and screenwriter Oliver Stone; one need only look at pale imitations such as Brokedown Palace and Return to Paradise to gauge its quality.

At Close Range (1986)

In 1978 rural Pennsylvania an absentee father is reacquainted with his estranged teenage sons and they become intrigued with romanticized life of crime.

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Review By Karl Williams

A superbly written and acted film based loosely on real-life events, this intense crime drama is a major artistic success for all concerned, especially stars Christopher Walken and Sean Penn in two of their best roles, as well as screenwriter Nicholas Kazan and director James Foley. The latter's style might strike some viewers as too cool, remote, or austere, but this nearly documentary-like approach allows the cast room to stretch and improvise while slyly emphasizing the picture's similarity to the classic In Cold Blood (1967). However, the film is definitely not a docudrama, the director reminding viewers of the emotionally potent subtext with subtle, symbolic transitions in which such incongruous, attention-getting images as bound chicken talons or singing lips suddenly appear. His is the art of transcending the establishing shot by going for something a little more penetrating. Walken and Penn are marvels of nuance employed in the arts of linguistic inflection and the physicality of inhabiting a character with one's entire body, from the way they laugh to how they walk. (Just watch Penn as he shifts from a cocky swagger that emanates down from his shoulders, moving like nothing so much as a suit buoyed by a massive hanger, to a defeated, slump-shouldered shuffle by the finale). Kazan goes light on dialogue but what's there is charged with unspoken meaning, while visual cues and arresting images tell the story. All of this shows the mark of a great screenwriter enjoying a meeting of the minds with a director who gets it. At Close Range (1986) is one of the best examples of its genre from the 1980s.