Gomorrah is based on the controversial bestseller by Roberto Saviano, and winner of the Grand Prix Cannes Film Festival in 2008, it is a more realistic insight into the Italian Mafia.
The film centres on the residents of Naples who must obey a system called, 'Camorra'.
Power, blood, and money are the essence of life in Naples and the lucky few live life outside of the Mafia organisations.
The film plot circulates around five stories and because the production is art house it gives us a more 'personal' point of view, with gritty scenes of the brutal and unstable life of these Mafia groups.
Mean Dreams is a film about lost innocence amongst two teenagers who come from different backgrounds, but are struggling to maintain an existence in the countryside of the Northern territory of North America.
When new neighbours move into the small country house, it consists of single father Wayne Caraway (Bill Paxton), who is a police officer and rather violent, which is vented-out on his daughter Casey Caraway (Sophie Nelisse).
Youth has a curosity attached to it and this often leads to trouble, especially in the case of country boy Jonas Ford (Josh Wiggins).
When Jonas sees Casey he makes contact and slowly a rather innocent relationship ensues, but her father isn't happy with this connection and later-on ends in a fight between her father and Jonas.
Unfortunately Jonas isn't going to listen to Casey's father and finds-out why her father seems menacingly uptight - he's a corrupt police officer.
Jonas convinces Casey to runaway with him, and he has an idealistic notion of surviving on this money, as he falls in love with Casey.
Well, not only witnessing a police officer committing a criminal act and then profiteering; but stealing these ill-gotten gains isn't the wisest of decisions and Casey knows all to well what her father is capable of.
The people that are left behind and not running is Jonas' farming family who are put under-pressure for Jonas to return, with the cash.
But this thriller is well worth the watch as the cat-and-mouse game between Jonas and Wayne ensues.
Sadly, this was one of the last films Bill Paxton made before his death in 2017.
But, this is probably one of his best roles and played Wayne Caraway in a very harrowing way. Often you think he's in the same room as you, and wait for his hand to rest on your shoulder - giving you goose bumps.
Filth is a controversial film - due to the fact that the slang word for the police is 'pig' and from the outset the film's image sets up the story of one policeman's journey, mainly of destruction.
From the opening scene we meet the main character that the film is based around Detective Bruce Robinson [James McAvoy], who is a rather unkempt, smoking, snorting and generally dirty looking man.
Right from the start you are bombarded with scenes of dirty filthy sex, which escalates into drug taking by blackmailing with threats of arrest from the local drug dealers.
Blackmail extends to having sex with borderline minors to lonely and desperate housewife's, which are his colleagues he's trying to out do in the race to get the promoted job at his police station.
You are left in shock and while laughing you're thinking 'Am I really witnessing this extreme story' and another more worrying thought, 'This has probably happened' amongst police officers worldwide.
There are very funny scenes one in particular concerns a Christmas party that gets drunkenly silly but hilarious as it includes a photocopier machine taking the best or biggest penis photocopy picture and the winner is unexpectedly rewarded with a fellow female colleague called Size Queen [Polly McIntosh]. Let's just say it isn't all cracked-up to be!
You get beyond the middle of the film and waiting for some more outrageous shenanigans, but instead you get to the root cause of this outlandish behaviour and the consequences of this destructive lifestyle.
You get some rather psychedelic scenes of people with animal masks on that keeps you wondering what the relation to these characters and inner thoughts of Detective Bruce Robinson are, as he sits in his psychiatrists Doctor Rossi's [ Jim Broadbent] room for his periodic anti-psychotic drug treatment. Though they are his demonic thoughts and fears concerning a family tragedy sometime ago.
The hopes of his job promotion slowly slips due to him being investigated and despised by Detective Superintendent Amanda Drummond [Imogen Poots] trying to undermine and cause complete havoc amongst his fellow police officers.
Having tried to do a good deed that didn't go to plan Detective Bruce Robinson now demoted to Constable is left feeling rather low, which ends in just a shocking twist as he lived!
