“Snaps the restraints of a knackered sub-genre and emerges from the heat haze of negative preconception like a prize fighter.” - Andrew Collins, Empire Magazine
“A crime film like no other, Sexy Beast is composed of moments of startling audacity, visual and dramatic, that arrive in waves, just long enough for you to catch your breath before the next.” - Kevin Maher, The Times
Saturday, August 16, 9:00 p.m. & Thursday, August 21, 6:00 p.m. | At the start of Jonathan Glazer’s (ZONE OF INTEREST) knockout feature film debut, ex-criminal Gal (Ray Winstone) blissfully bakes under the sun at his Costa del Sol villa (“I’m roasting. Boiling. Baking. Sweltering...,” he murmurs). Happily retired, Gal and his wife’s languid life is shattered by the arrival of the psychotic gangster Don Logan (Ben Kingsley, in an electrifying, Academy Award–nominated performance), who is intent on persuading Gal to do one more big job. Reticent to return to a life of crime, Gal is given little choice to refuse Don without dire consequences. A slick and stylish crime caper, SEXY BEAST is also a red hot thriller that threatens to boil over at any minute. This tense, taut tour de force doesn’t waste a second before it starts turning up the heat.
Awards & Nominations
Nominee - Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Ben Kingsley), Academy Awards
Winner - Best Film, Best Actor (Ben Kingsley), Best Director, Best Screenplay, British Independent Film Awards
Scorchers | August 2–31, 2025
Hot enough for you? Welcome to the dog days of summer, when the temperatures reach their peak and it feels like you could fry an egg on the sidewalk. In Scorchers, we explore 10 films where stifling heat has a starring role. In these cinematic sizzlers, characters fan themselves and wipe their brows—and as the degrees rise, so do the stakes. When we’re stripped down, exhausted, and oppressed by an atmosphere warmer than our body temperature, things are bound to explode.
The Film Center is ADA accessible. This presentation will be projected without open captions. The theater is hearing-loop equipped. For accessibility requests, please email filmcenter@saic.edu