Gangster No.1 (2000)

This is a genuine favourite of mine, but one which seemed to pass below the radar so to speak. It makes up part of a trifecta of films which made me think Paul Bettany would become one of the major actors of his generation, and it doesn't seem to have come to pass.

It's interesting because the film sort of eschews the usual gangster film process in which someone is enamoured by the life, is drawn into, is elevated within it, and then is burned by it by films close. Because Bettany's gangster is a full on sociopath right from the off, there's no way to round off his arc with a fall because there's no weakness for him to exploit. He's just dangerous, and scary, and unrelenting. It's a fantastic, threatening, performance by Bettany which is both charismatic and chilling.

There's a slew of great performances, but because Bettany's so great and because of the nature of the film they never really match up.

It's also a fantastically shot film, possibly a little overboard on the stylistic tics, but there's a brutal quality to the violence in the film which gets under the skin. In a way the film is about the passing of the torch from one generation to another, from a generation with certain ideals about decorum to a generation more willing to sadistic and brutal and Bettany's 'serial killer' like performance really nails it.