Muscle -2020

[rjd2]

Featuring the one and only superstar of the Rise Of The Footsoldier series Craig Fairbrass as a very odd personal trainer who mentors a man going through a midlife crisis, slightly fat, missus don't like him, works in a call centre etc....

Its got good reviews and it deserves them, very dark and at times funny portrayal of an absurdly macho world.

Fairbrass the obvious highlight however, he has done a lot of muck in his career, but when you need a menacing protagonist no better man.

He seems over the moon from the positive reception for his performance which is quite sweet as he does come across as a decent bloke .

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/nov/27/it-took-me-three-days-to-get-over-the-orgy-scene-muscle-star-craig-fairbrass-star-of-muscle

[Cuellar]

he has done a lot of muck in his career

From what I read he does a lot of muck in this film

[rjd2]

From what I read he does a lot of muck in this film

I initially rolled my eyes when I read the below as I love a good orgy, but it was so sleazy and repugnant which is obviously what the director was aiming for.

Muscle%u2019s centrepiece sequence is a dingy, throbbing orgy scene set in a grubby suburban home in north-east England. It is so hypnotically grim that it takes a few moments to realise that the majority of performers don%u2019t appear to be faking it. Sudden, unsimulated sex comes as a shock to the viewer; what was it like to shoot?

%u201CWeird,%u201D Fairbrass replies tersely. Then he opens up a little. %u201CIt was so weird. I can%u2019t %u2026 It took me three days to get over it.%u201D

[13 schoolyards]

There's an extra on the blu ray of one of the later Rise of the Footsoldier films (maybe 3?) where they're talking to the cast and everyone else is getting all excited talking about how they got in a bunch of porn stars for some trashy sex scene or another and Fairbrass just looks depressed that it's come to this.

He's legitimately great in this, and I liked the way the film itself answers as few questions as possible about what's really going on - you know as much as the clueless main character, nothing more. And yeah, that orgy scene is one of the nastiest, grubbiest scenes I've seen in a film in ages.

[thugler]

Fucking hell that was grim!

[ASFTSN]

This sounds pretty damn good, but how grim is it exactly? Is it one of those 'Turn off the DVD player after the credits roll and then sit in silence' films? Coz if it is I might have to leave it a bit.

[El Unicornio, mang]

Fairbrass was good in Rise of the Footsoldier (not much else good to say about it), this does look too grim/real to be my cup of tea though.

[13 schoolyards]

This sounds pretty damn good, but how grim is it exactly? Is it one of those 'Turn off the DVD player after the credits roll and then sit in silence' films? Coz if it is I might have to leave it a bit.

Kind of? It doesn't really end on that kind of hammer blow "we're all fucked forever" note where all hope for humanity is lost, but it does stay with you for a while.

Then again, there is a moment close to the end with a turd on a coffee table that I laughed at, so it's not all bad news

[thugler]

Anyone have any idea what the

Spoiler alert

incriminating photos

[close]

were supposed to be?

[ASFTSN]

I've just realised Cavan Clerkin is one of the leads in this so I'm going to watch it and pretend it's a spin-off from Pulling after Donna leaves Karl once and for all.

[rjd2]

Anyone have any idea what the

Spoiler alert

incriminating photos

[close]

were supposed to be?

Spoiler alert

Assumed initially by the look of disgust from the cop that Simon was also in the picture, but surely he wouldn't be dumb enough to bring such a pic to a cop, I dunno assume it was Tony doing something horrible to  lass, he did say he was in jail for rape.

[close]

[13 schoolyards]

Spoiler alert

Assumed initially by the look of disgust from the cop that Simon was also in the picture, but surely he wouldn't be dumb enough to bring such a pic to a cop, I dunno assume it was Tony doing something horrible to  lass, he did say he was in jail for rape.

[close]

I figure from the way the cops act that

Spoiler alert

whatever's going on in the photos is so awful that simply having an image of it in your possession is enough to put you in deep shit - so maybe Tony's rape was of someone underage?

[close]

[ASFTSN]

Watched this, liked it. I was expecting the gym and his new muscle routine to feature a little more than it did. Although it did fall into a couple of bits that felt like "British hard man film cliches" (camera panning around blokes next to a van, close shots of the back of bald bastard heads) the relationship between the two of them made up for it. It also petered out a bit rather than maintaining the initial claustrophobic feel but maybe that's the point/ Good stuff.

Anyone have any idea what the

Spoiler alert

incriminating photos

[close]

were supposed to be?

Spoiler alert

Terry/Trevor referred to his "trophy photos" from Iraq when they were in the sauna, I just assumed it was some horrible war crime shit, possibly involving rape or child abuse. Was it roid-paranoia the way the cop was looking at him, or was it supposed to be implied the cop was a bad sort too?

[close]