Excess Month Research: Week 2

I've avoided going out much this week in favour of saving up and getting through a ton of films that people have been recommending to me for years. These are all movies that follow a theme of 'excess,' which I interpreted loosely.

I made it about 20 minutes into Van Wilder: Party Liaison before turning it off. The least funny of the National Lampoon films that I've seen.

Kill Your Friends followed this, Owen Harris' brutally faithful interpretation of John Niven's music-industry-bashing, yuppie-murdering novel. Entertaining, and imaginatively brought to the screen. Like the book, though, it strains to differenciate itself from American Psycho (it does, however, have better depictions of violence.) I was quite happy to see James Corden's Character murdered as, like he proved at Friday night's amFAR Gala, he's a fat unfunny overhyped prick.

Up next: Filth, John S Baird's interpretation of Irvine Welsh's bent-copper thriller. A reliable adaptation that works without the tapeworm thread, and with a Russel-Crowe-esque James McAvoy filling the lead alcoholic, drug addicted and unreliable narrating role. A 400-page book is impressively condensed into a 100-minute movie. Gross and heartfelt.

Blow followed this, Johnny Depp's portrayal of George Jung, who smuggled cocaine for the Medellin Cartel in the 1970s. A routine tale of a dealer making millions then getting caught. Great fun, though.

American Made was next in the list, yet another coke-smuggling true story this time following pilot Barry Seal as he links up the same Medellin Cartel with Floridian dealers, only to get busted by the CIA and work for them too. Utterly chaotic but fascinating. I'm not sure whether I had a buffering problem or the director was trying some kind of Scorsese-style freeze-frame technique. It was annoying, though. The ending, in which Seal records a message for his family knowing he'll be killed at some point, was reminiscent of 90s Gangster flick Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead. American Made is an enjoyable movie.

Away from films, I got a blog RT from Love Island's Scott Thomas, to his 306K followers. Thanks Scott!