Like The Wolf of Wall Street, Filth (based on the Irvine Welsh book) features a boyish leading man in a spectacular performance as a drug-enhanced (and later -addled) Machiavelli. Vial after vial of cocaine goes up high-functioning cop Bruce Robertson's (James McAvoy in, to use a magazine cliche, the performance of his career) nose as he manipulates, bullies, womanizes and pranks his way through life just because he can, or so it seems.