Eric Love (Jack O’Connell) is 19, ‘starred up’ (transferred to adult prison prematurely from juvenile prison), and out to make a splash. On his first day he violently attacks an unsuspecting fellow prisoner, puts himself into a state of Bronson–esque arousal for the ensuing fight with prison officers and finishes up holding one officer hostage with an aerial at his throat and then gripping another’s privates between his teeth. I don’t know too many prisons that would allow him to just go back into the wing after that… even as an outcome negotiated for the officers’ release, but back to the wing he goes, the new prison Governor a little peeved that she hadn’t been advised of his arrival. It’s a mark of this film that it’s able to overcome that initial credibility gap and still be an exceptional prison movie.
(more…)
Posted on August 30th, 2014 at 4:38 pm. Updated on August 29th, 2019 at 8:42 pm.
I put off watching this movie for years, thinking for some reason that – despite its title – it had not much to do with prison, a little like Ingmar Bergman’s 1949 film of the same name. That was a little foolish, in retrospect, a bit like expecting no music in The Sound of Music or no dogs in Reservoir Dogs. (more…)
Posted on August 1st, 2014 at 9:11 pm. Updated on August 1st, 2014 at 9:11 pm.
It’s quite possible that nothing much is going right for Sarah Jo Pender; she might or might not be guilty of a double murder in 2000 for which she is serving 110 years in prison, and there’s a good chance she’s still in solitary confinement after escaping from Indiana’s Rockville Correctional Facility in August 2008. But at least she can sit back be well pleased that they chose Jenna Dewan Tatum to play her in this made-for-TV film; the choice flatters her immensely. (more…)
Posted on July 6th, 2014 at 7:50 pm. Updated on July 6th, 2014 at 7:59 pm.
If you’re looking for some light entertainment, this is probably not the film for you. At one level it’s a story of an intelligent first-time prisoner battling to survive in a harsh prison. But it’s much more besides.
(more…)
Posted on June 23rd, 2014 at 9:59 pm. Updated on June 27th, 2014 at 10:22 pm.
There is not much that can be said for this other than that it is a singularly distasteful, exploitative film. (more…)
Posted on June 8th, 2014 at 9:41 pm. Updated on June 8th, 2014 at 9:43 pm.
In saying that this is the most interesting new prison movie for some time, I need also to declare my bias: I know a number of the principals connected with its production. (more…)
Posted on April 25th, 2014 at 4:10 pm. Updated on April 25th, 2014 at 4:24 pm.
The real-life trial around which this film revolves was a landmark battered wives case in Britain. Unfortunately, director Jag Mundhra makes the mistake of assuming that his audience has no intelligence at all; the story is so dumbed down and melodramatic that at every corner there is a “My God! That’s brilliant!” moment as someone thinks of flicking a light switch in the dark. (more…)
Posted on April 21st, 2014 at 7:18 pm. Updated on April 21st, 2014 at 7:18 pm.
When this opened where I live, it opened, I think, for just one session in one cinema. That might say as much as needs to be said. (more…)
Posted on April 14th, 2014 at 10:56 pm. Updated on April 29th, 2015 at 10:34 pm.
Based on the book by Swiss Alexander Ziegler, who as a 22-year-old was sent to prison for a gay relationship with a 16-year-old, this is a not-so-simple love story that battles its way through prison, a reformatory for juveniles, and considerable torment. Although it is a German production, almost all of the action takes place in Switzerland. (more…)
Posted on April 6th, 2014 at 7:00 pm. Updated on April 6th, 2014 at 7:00 pm.
Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, 1936. Spain is about to plunge into civil war, and an unlikely romance between Daniel Da Barca (Tristán Ulloa), a charismatic Republican doctor, and Marisa Mallo (María Adánez), the daughter of a wealthy businessman who has quickly thrown his lot in with Franco’s rebel Nationalists, is beginning to blossom.
(more…)
Posted on March 9th, 2014 at 12:59 pm. Updated on March 9th, 2014 at 12:59 pm.