Stone and water go head to head throughout Sexy Beast, from the boulder that lands in a swimming pool at the film's opening to the big heist late in the film. Perhaps that could stand as a metaphor for Ben Kingsley's Don Logan, the immovable object and concrete wall that forces himself into the middle of the life of Gal, a retired thief trying to just enjoy life in Spain. Or is Don the water--enveloping, consuming, always finding another way…

I feel like this movie deserves some kind of reassessment, or deeper appreciation. Jonathan Glazer's debut is something spectacular, a moody, exciting, off-kilter, artful drama as much about a group of scummy-by-degrees criminals as it is about acknowledging and accepting the external and internal flaws in each of us. (The former because, oh boy, is this movie fixated on these goons' sweaty, grimy Dick-Tracy-villain-esque bodies and faces.)

Ben Kingsley's performance as the raging id of the British underworld has always…

Yes, it's a British gangster film. Yes, it stars notorious cockney geezer Ray Winstone. Yes, it has lots of passive aggressive language and tones. It pretty much ticks all the boxes required for a film of this kind to be thought of as generic, clichéd and uninspiring.

So. Why then is it so bloody good? Is it because Ray Winstone is actually showing why he is thought of so highly as an actor, despite spending most of his time in…