This is one of several films loosely based on the Judith Miller case from 2005 – in which Miller, a journalist, was jailed for 85 days for not revealing sources of information regarding the outing of CIA-operative Valerie Plame (even though she didn’t disclose the information herself). This parallel story (‘inspired by actual events’) takes a simpler, less murky path: all the better to polemicise, it seems.
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Posted on December 17th, 2012 at 9:27 pm. Updated on December 17th, 2012 at 9:30 pm.
Who would have thought? You go into this movie expecting a good old-fashioned piece of racial hurly burly, with the bigot realising the error of his ways in the end – a sort of Unshackled (2000), played for laughs. That’s how it’s promoted. Instead, it turns out to be a romantic comedy, of all things. Mind you, it’s not so radical that the romance is between the two cellmates. And of course it still ends with the bigot realising the error of his ways.
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Posted on December 10th, 2012 at 8:59 pm. Updated on December 10th, 2012 at 8:59 pm.
In some ways this is the antithesis of an action movie; an accidental political prisoner becomes a celebrated revolutionary leader, also by accident, after he invents a board game in prison. If there is such a thing, it is quite possibly an inaction movie, and all the better for it. (more…)
Posted on November 2nd, 2012 at 9:20 pm. Updated on January 1st, 2017 at 9:04 am.
A remake of the 1926 silent film of the same name, Devil’s Island also shares a lot in common with The Prisoner of Shark Island (1936), Those High Grey Walls (1939) and the later Hellgate (1952); all have the chief protagonist providing medical assistance to a wounded reprobate and then being charged with being an accomplice. The hero in this one, however, seems less a victim of circumstance. (more…)
Posted on October 11th, 2012 at 7:53 pm. Updated on October 11th, 2012 at 8:00 pm.
I’m not keen on sci-fi prison movies, so it’s good that while this is set ‘sometime in the future’, it’s hardly futuristic, with very 1980s-90s cars and fashion and people speaking on pay phones. But like Fortress (1992), it provides a wonderful illustration of real prison innovation. (more…)
Posted on September 25th, 2012 at 10:16 pm. Updated on September 25th, 2012 at 10:20 pm.
Rick Penning (Sean Faris) is a sullen, selfish, jerk. He’s in juvenile detention, but you would hardly know it. Forever Strong is about rugby and the life lessons that a coach can bring to a team. It’s not so much about the life lessons that juvenile detention can teach. (more…)
Posted on July 1st, 2012 at 2:44 pm. Updated on July 1st, 2012 at 2:44 pm.
This is a cold, cold film. An escapee is returned to the prison, barefoot in the snow. Young men shiver in the forest, huddling together in the freezing rain, unable to find shelter. It is the unrelenting cold, as much as anything, that serves to remind us of how estranged these boys are from the warmth of people who care for them – and which constantly underscores the brutality of their existence. The cold… and the practice of referring to the boys only by their number, not their names.
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Posted on June 4th, 2012 at 10:39 pm. Updated on August 29th, 2019 at 8:49 pm.
“I have one rule in my prison: There are no rules.” So says Warden Preston (Derek McGrath), but he’s not telling the truth; there are quite a few rules, including one which says that if you are in a fight-to-the-death you are not permitted to refuse to kill your opponent. (more…)
Posted on May 27th, 2012 at 8:11 pm. Updated on May 27th, 2012 at 8:12 pm.
As the opening credits of Con Games roll over, we see a prisoner being led into a cell (in order that he might be raped by a waiting prisoner, it turns out), and the cell door doesn’t have a locking mechanism. Maybe such details are unimportant. But it doesn’t augur well. (more…)
Posted on March 19th, 2012 at 10:29 pm. Updated on August 11th, 2013 at 12:00 pm.
This is a heartwarming tale – full of stabbings, rape, murder, drug dealing, slash-ups, suicide and corruption. But heartwarming nonetheless. (more…)
Posted on January 28th, 2012 at 10:02 pm. Updated on February 3rd, 2012 at 10:29 pm.