Pelin Keskin-Liu is a writer, video producer and director based in New York City. Her writing has appeared in Eater, and she was formerly the co-host of the Criticism is Dead podcast.
This interview took place in February 2023, and what we discussed was timely. I would say it still is. What’s changed since then is that last year, Pelin wrote and directed a short film – Three Meals (2024). Read on for our thoughts on heist movies, the One Last Job, and Jonathan Glazer’s Sexy Beast (2000).
🚨ALSO WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD🚨
What made you choose Sexy Beast?
To me, it's the most underrated film of all time, and I think a lot of people don't know that it exists or have never heard of it. The tone is the thing that sets it apart from all the other heist/One Last Job/gangster movies. There are narration and dream sequences that don't quite fit, but then they do at the same time. It’s all so random: there's a hodgepodge of things that fit and swap perfectly altogether, like different Tetris pieces, you know? Like, once everything comes together, it just makes perfect sense. This is the case with all the films that changed me. It had the confidence to just go for it, and it executed it so well.
And then, obviously, there’s Ben Kingsley playing Don: I’ve never seen a performance like this. I think a lot of people try to touch it like Mia Goth, who I think is a really good example of someone that tries to touch it, especially in Infinity Pool. I found out later that it's the most nominated he's ever been for any role – even more than Gandhi (1982). Before this, he'd done so many period pieces, and this was the first time he was playing against type.
The thing too is that this is a short film – almost 80 minutes – but I heard the script is 200 pages long because the writers were so into describing exactly what was happening. So these writers knew what they wanted and they were lucky enough by some miracle to find the perfect director for it.
Did you know this when you watched it the first time or did this all click when you rewatched it?
The first time I watched this film was only last year. My husband and I watched it on a plane together, and it took us so aback. The second Sexy Beast was done, I was…you know how it is with films where you're like, I'm a different person now? It was that. The way I see film now is different. It has instantly entered my canon of things that I will reference for the rest of my life.
What shifted?
We came home, and in the following days, we rewatched it again on the big screen. And then we got a feel for the claustrophobia of it. The power I knew this film had was during this particular dinner scene early on. It just sets the tone where the dread of it all is incredible. They sit down and they say that Don (Ben Kingsley) is on the way. The way that the tension is built, along with the acting – the way they all look so scared. I instantly became scared. If I ever become a filmmaker myself, that to me, is a study in building tension. That's the scene.
The source of this tension is also that Gal (played by Ray Winstone) is very much a thief who’s ready to retire. And yet this uninvited guest is about to disrupt that peace for him.
Ray Winstone is so good in it just because he’s playing someone who is so fucking sick of this shit. Like he and Tony Soprano are just brothers. They came out of the same womb but just ended up in different parts of the world, you know? They're the reluctant gangster, the one that is, like, I've paid my dues. I'm over it. Leave me the fuck alone. I don't want to be here right now.
And the way that Gal keeps fixating on calamari. He's like, I'm in the mood for calamari. And it's perfect because the calamari represents his life. He’s just gotten this news that has taken his appetite clean away, but what he will do is still order the calamari because he refuses to let this get in the way of what he wants, which is his life.
And then this boulder comes crashing out of nowhere and crushes the heart at the bottom of the pool. What an omen.
And it almost kills him! But yes, it’s the representation of Don’s coming – nothing could be done to stop it. These are the laws of nature. This thing is going to come down no matter what because of gravity. These mountains have been there long before your villa was there. It was gonna happen. That's fate. It's very Coen brothers-esque. It’s gonna happen. It's gonna be shit luck and you can't do anything about it.
And the thing about the calamari is that it’s about choice versus fate. He has the choice to order this calamari, so he’s going to order it because he knows that he’s going to be faced with an instance where his choice is gonna be taken away from him (by Don).
I noticed that this is categorized as a comedy, which is bizarre to me.
I read it being called a comedy too, and I guess it could be because it is quote-unquote light in tone sometimes, but there's something deeply unfunny about the whole thing.
Absolutely. And when Don is killed and their boss – crime lord Teddy (played by Ian McShane) – asks where he is, we get a joke from Gal and a cut to Don being shot. We don’t know what’s happened yet, and then we cut back to these two cracking jokes. Ian McShane is also in another notable One Last Job movie – John Wick. So we’ve come full circle here.
But this is where Teddy reminds Gal that he, like Don, is just another cog in the machine. They are replaceable.
Right, and this is where I felt the claustrophobia you mentioned earlier. I kept wondering if Gal was going to get killed.
Well, that's the thing. Initially, you think that Don’s the ultimate villain and then come to find out that there’s a much more silent, wordless, uncompromising final boss. But then I also remember that the comedy is in how unsettling everything is. I remember that scene where Don is screaming at them, repeating the same things, and there’s something there that reads as a 3-year-old throwing a tantrum. That’s funny, but it elicits a nervous laughter out of all of us in the audience and through them. You can’t say no because you’re scared Don is going to kill you. Gal knows this already. I read recently that Ben Kingsley was so fucking in the zone in this particular scene, that some of the actors were speechless and forgot their lines. They didn't know what the fuck they were dealing with.
I read that there’s a Sexy Beast prequel series in the works. Do you think it would work today?
I always try to think if these films were made in this day and age, would people still like them? And I genuinely think that people would like this film. And it's because it doesn't care what anyone thinks of it. Even down to the dream sequences with the prosthetics and how scary they look – they reminded me of Donnie Darko (2001). The first time I saw that, I was like, what the fuck is that? Because I suddenly didn’t know what kind of film this was.
What do you mean by that?
Like, is this a horror film? And then I realized that it was just how Don made him feel – it’s the physical manifestation of this person's spirit.
Yes – I feel like this is a film that is driven by its characters and their choices and not the plot so much. I kept asking myself what would have happened if this person just did things differently. You can see choices laid out and you get to watch these characters make some terrible decisions. You’re right: this is very Coen-esque because the same thing happens in their films too.
The joke with the Coens is that, like, the characters are so sure of themselves – that they’re making the right decision – and most of them are just so wrong. They missed something and that's my favorite part about it. They're simply not intelligent characters. And when they are, like in Fargo (1996), they are usually the ones that are a bit more jaded and skeptical.
I feel like collectively, we can all kind of speak to pre-COVID times where we were thinking of what life was like before then and how it changed slowly in that week or two when we realized that things were never going to go back to normal. That feeling of, like, everything is good. We're all planning this, and it's not gonna be an issue. And because of the fates, something completely shakes us up. How do we react to it?
Denial is one thing because there’s this whole tension between Gal and Don. Gal has decided that after a life of crime, all he wants to do is look after his wife. He wants to live a good life and never have to worry about any of this shit again. And then Don comes and challenges everything, ridiculing Gal and his choices. Don has to ridicule Gal’s masculinity with violence because violence is ultimately the most masculine manifestation of emotion (according to him). And that’s where Gal’s control comes into play – where he constantly has to steer himself back. Like he knew he was going to get screwed over and the only way to regain control was to steal some earrings out of the safe. After this, Gal will live a happy life. He’ll probably have a heart attack at 65 or 70, right?
Do you think Gal is done done this time?
I was trying to think about why he didn’t want it anymore. Like, what was it about it that he was just like, I'm done. He's a safecracker. He understood himself as a cog in a bigger machine. He was someone that they called and that he had to say yes to over and over again. And I think that was probably very humiliating for him. He was probably like, I don't wanna live my life that way anymore. He spent so long doing that. And he’s fallen in love with an ex-pornstar. That’s not something that men like him do, you know what I mean? Like his type is not necessarily pro-sex worker.
I remember that one phone call, where he keeps telling her that he loves her. He keeps saying these affirmations to her. And she’s the voice of reason, pleading with him to focus because he might be killed.
Please just stay alive. He just has to do the job and stay alive.
Do you really think this is Gal’s last job — that no one will bother him ever again?
I do think this is probably the end for him. I also think that because he's gone and killed Don at this point, that probably excommunicated him from the circle because he's not just a safecracker anymore. You know? He's disturbed the power structure, in a way.
I want to touch on Don’s death. It happens right by Gal’s pool. He gets shot and lays there screaming and insulting everyone before Gal, his wife and friends beat him to death.
There's adrenaline and the need for the outcome to be different for him. In Don’s mind, it cannot be the end for him, you know? He just can't believe that this has happened – especially at the hand of a woman. And by a bunch of people that he just doesn't respect, that he doesn't think are on his level. But at the same time, he has sowed so many seeds that it's just reaping right now for him.
But Gal kept Don’s body so close to home, which is what disturbed me. This man tormented you and you buried him under your new pool so you’re reminded of him every day?
To me, it felt like dominance: I'm above water, and you're under. He’s insulting him even in death. There's something very subordinating about the whole thing: killing him and then having him under his property. That's why he gets pleasure in it, and that's why he tells Don to shut up, you know?
Right, I forgot that he keeps telling Ron – who is dead – to shut up. It's interesting because Don has, like you said, spent most of the trip insulting everyone and saying they're weak and pathetic. And then in a moment of death, instead of just letting him die or shooting him again, they beat the shit out of him. They wanted him to suffer.
It's that visceral feeling of violence that has to be close enough so they can get some reprieve. They want him to feel their fists and feet on his flesh. They want to see him bleed.
It’s the little control they’ve had since his arrival.
I love how the film is edited for us to see that at the time that we do because we still don't know if Don is alive or not. And when that reveal happens, we still don’t know if Gal is going to be okay. At that point, we just want him to get back to his wife.
I rewatched Sexy Beast this week, and I realized I had forgotten some parts of the film. I remember the sequences. I remember individual scenes, but I forgot that the boulder rolls into the pool. Like, that happened in the first couple of seconds of the film and I completely forgot about it. But now I realize that was a means to an end. Once you see the film as a whole and every time you do see it, there’s a way that it connects the dots, and how it takes us back to exactly where we were, which is him sunbathing next to the pool at the end of the film (where he wanted to in the first place). That's the victory, you know? Gal has lost so much throughout the film, but the fact that he finally got what he wanted again – control and sweet relief – is amazing. He’s tied every loose end and never has to worry again.
How does Sexy Beast compare to other One Last Job films?
The issue with One Last Job movies is that the guy is just very good at something and he's not very good at anything else for the most part. Like, even with, The Bourne Supremacy (2004) and the Bourne franchise as well – he's so good at it that even his amnesia is meant to make him forget how good he is at his job. I don’t want to double-bill it, but Michael Clayton (2007) is a good example of the guy who has to do a job, gets stuck, loses control and is so fucking sick of it. He's so tired of this job. He's so tired of the work. He's so tired of being the fixer and cleaning up other people's messes, including his own. He's done. And, that's the thing with Gal: he's been done. He doesn't care that he's good at it. It doesn't matter to him. He wants to be a good husband, eat dinner with friends, dick about, and that's it. And tomorrow, he’s going to do it all over again.
I understand the whole thing with the One Last Job film – that there are sequels and multiple films about it and everything. It's just that there's something very special and limiting about Sexy Beast – it truly is the last job. This guy is done with his life of crime. He just wants to be boring. And we want him to be left alone.
I ask this because right now, people are upset that there are a lot of shows and movies about rich people, like Parasite (2019), White Lotus (2021), Triangle of Sadness (2022), Infinity Pool (2023), and Succession (2018). And you’ve picked a movie that falls in a long line of a particular genre, yet we’ve just discussed how different it is from the rest.
That’s the thing that scares me the most – people think that when they see or notice a pattern, it's unoriginal. Now it’s a film about class or wealth. I'm getting tired of this kind of thinking. You have to understand that this says something about our time. You have to take that into context. That was the critique of Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness. People were like, I've had enough with films about rich people. And I need people to consider the director’s body of work. That's what he does: he considers class and wealth and how disgusting it can be. It’s something people have been talking about since the dawn of time.
This thinking is so rampant now that it removes all the nuance from the film and pacifies your critical thinking skills. What happens if that film is singular and then another film with similar themes is also singular in itself? What happens then? Can you not just consider each film in a silo first before you pull in the theory of it all? You know? With Infinity Pool, people were like, “We've seen the rich people at a holiday resort doing crazy things.” And then they compare that to Triangle of Sadness and Mike White’s White Lotus. And it's like, okay. They're all kind of saying the same thing – aka bottom line, rich people are terrible – but let’s talk about the subject at hand. Let’s get into detail. Or let’s just put it down.
Like, how is this director building on the pattern or using it to mess with us?
Exactly. I worry because I don't think we've ever taken in culture as much as we have in this day and age. It's readily available to us at every single moment. So then it becomes even more important for you to cultivate your taste and for you to then be critical about what it is that you like and don't like, and to be surprised and welcoming when someone breaks that completely apart.
It’s very hard to get a project done. I'm not someone that has ever done it. I can’t relate to it, but I respect it. And when someone does something so well that it cheapens everything else, then yeah, let’s talk about it. Let’s talk about why it’s the best. What we owe these people is thoughtful engagement.
We also need to think about the fact there are many different types of films and different things we all value. And yes, you take the art at face value. And some things are not art at all. And some things are. But I'm not gonna turn around and have the same value system on a Fast & Furious movie as I am on a Todd Field movie. These two films are of different calibres because they want different things from me. I, as a person who likes multiple things all at once, can then be a little bit of a critical chameleon and figure out why, for example, that's a bad Fast & Furious movie compared to the other ones, and why I cannot sit there and compare these two films with each other. It's about being flexible and understanding the filmmaker, the genre, and understanding how it fits into the landscape. These are being orchestrated all at the same time, and you have to engage with it all as a symphony.