Adam Truscott Says Filth And Captain Phillips Have Restored His Faith In Films

Remember the scene at the end of Big Trouble In Little China? Jack Burton — so excited — so pent up with aggression, rage and general heroism, shoots the ceiling to get the fight started. He then gets knocked out by the falling bricks and the camera elegantly cuts back to him — mid fight — to see him still out for the count.

Thats been me. I’ve been here. I’ve been a presence. In some ways I even got the party started. But I’ve missed the cresendo. Sure – I shot that bug eye thing (Mike P??) in the face. But I’ve been sleeping in a white vest when my team needed me most.

“Write about Filth!”, Phillip implored. “Tell the people why McAvoy should get an Oscar!”, he’d yell….. Almost pathetically.

But I couldn’t.

“Write about Machete Kills happening. How it’s better than Machete. How Mel Gibson is bug nuts crazy. How that another dent in the “is he/isn’t he” gay debate was made when you realised you’d never even thought of Amber Heard sexually before. Like a gay little bear.”

But I didn’t. I couldn’t.

“Just write! Ramble like a rambler that just got rambling. I’ll be your muse. Draw me like those french girls. Please. We need the hits.”

Oh, Phil. You ruthless sonofabitch. You’ve always known how to cut to the core of me.

And so we’re here. Shooting the shit. Drinking to remember. But lets cut too it. Let me tell you why Tom Hanks is possibly the most underrated overrated actor of all time. And why he MUST get the Oscar for best Actor.

Captain Phillips is an incredible film. I’d go so far as saying the final thirty minutes ruined me. I’ve genuinely never seen anything by it.

Yes, Phillip. Machete Kills is superior to Machete — in all but RR’s ridic decision to not mess with the film stock. (What’s that all about??) But it’s twenty minutes too long. It outstays it’s welcome — despite its cute wrap around plot. Grindhouse intelligence? Who knew.

Phillips is the opposite. It plays everything out to perfection. It never outstays it welcome — in fact the opposite. I didn’t want it to end. I kept thinking of all of the closing shots I was lining up in my mind… then…. something else entirely. I really haven’t been so surprised by a Directors decisions in an age. Nothing is accidental.

I picture Greengrass sat at Home. Probably in his pants — and almost certainly with a whiskey. “Fuck you, Bigelow. You want tension? I’ll give you tension. And I won’t shoot it in night vision, neither. You bitch.”

And he just nails it. So much so that up until the final ten minutes, the four Oscars Phillips simply must win were very definite.

1/ Greengrass for Director.

2/ Muse for best supporting Actor. Seriously. Amazing.

3/ Sound design. Wow. When was the last time a score/sound effects were this good in a non sic-fi setting? Truly a work of art.

4/ Hanks. Way down in forth.

It’s almost like he heard me. “FOURTH??” He’d say — with that ever so slight twang. “Is this Ryan all over again?? Redemption? Apollo 13?? Where essentially all of my best performances go unnoticed — much liking a working mans Martin Scorcese?”

And he got me thinking. Maybe it is, Thomas. Because thus far you’ve been excellent. Really excellent. But Muse has been incredible. World class. And you’ve just…….

And then it happens.

“What was that? What was that??”

And the film shifts. You literally feel the shift from great film making to classic in the making.

Hanks in the last twenty minutes is almost unwatchable. He’s that good. I was sucked right in. Couldn’t look away. When he reaches for the pencil it didn’t get me like Jonathon Woss promised. Instead it was when he asked about his wife. It destroyed me. He’s like a boy. So scared. So shocked. Like the end of Ryan where he says “earn this”. The humanity he brings to the finale is heart breaking. Truly world class. And where’s Muse? It doesn’t matter.

So go see Captain Phillips. If nothing else it got me back in the saddle again.

I’d love a world where McAvy gets a nod. Up until the last five minutes (redeemed by  a sensational last shot, mind), the film is incredible, too. So incredible in fact I ditched my planned triple bill. How can you watch anything after Filth? I needed to get my head around it.

And that sums up the difference quite nicely.

On one hand, a film so brilliant I couldn’t watch another. And on another — a film so incredible I wanted to go straight back in to watch again.

Fuck it. Give them both Oscars.