Prison stuff. In prison movies.
Romantic comedy is not the most common genre within prison movies, but that’s what this is. It forms part of what has become a fine tradition in recent British prison movies (Captives, Borstal Boy, Greenfingers), playing out a fascination for well-heeled women falling for ‘a bit of rough’. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 1:05 pm. Updated on March 6th, 2016 at 8:58 pm.
More a Borstal film than a prison film, perhaps, but we’ll leave it in. The BBC commissioned a TV film on the British Borstal (juvenile justice) system in 1977, and then banned it, leading Director Alan Clarke to recreate it as a movie. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 1:00 pm. Updated on August 21st, 2009 at 6:45 pm.
I’m not overly familiar with the horror genre, I must admit. Nor have I seen either of the two Re-animator prequels, the first of which seems to be universally regarded as the best of the three. But this, I expect, would be hard to beat as prison schlock, and you certainly don’t need to have seen the others to enjoy it. It’s in English, too, despite being made in Spain. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 12:54 pm. Updated on August 21st, 2009 at 6:45 pm.
Is this a prison movie? I have no idea. It’s set in a prison – on Death Row (where prisoners walk their last mile – here, on green linoleum) in a 1930s Louisiana prison, Cold Mountain Penitentiary – and there are some superb prison characters, but it’s also a spiritual, miracle-filled fantasy that at times has as much to do with the prison experience as, say, Bewitched. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 12:50 pm. Updated on August 21st, 2009 at 6:45 pm.
A small opera company manages to get further funding by working with prisoners in a maximum security prison. They audition eight lifers and one staff member and give them all parts in the chorus. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 12:29 pm. Updated on August 21st, 2009 at 6:45 pm.
‘A chatty, ribald coming-of-age meets coming-of-wisdom jail-house tale.’
Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 8:49 am. Updated on August 21st, 2009 at 6:45 pm.
Comedy in which a frustrated thespian tries to bring the joys of the theatre to a group of inmates, some of whom are more interested in the opportunity to escape than the dramatic arts. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 8:40 am. Updated on August 21st, 2009 at 6:46 pm.
Fabio is a committed but intense, on-the-edge young man who works in a programs-type role in a secure prison, arranging reintegration leaves and putting up cases to the Parole Board. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on May 14th, 2009 at 10:03 pm. Updated on August 21st, 2009 at 6:46 pm.
From the very first scenes, where Randy (Michael Pitt) is silently preparing to go to court, you know things aren’t going to go well for him. His tie is all awry in a schoolboyish sort of way, he’s pasty, he has a constant pouty look, and his hair is tied back in a vain little ponytail. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on May 14th, 2009 at 10:00 pm. Updated on March 6th, 2016 at 12:36 pm.
If there’s another prison movie where it is a prison officer with whom the viewer is asked to identify most, I can’t think of it. Well, Brubaker, I suppose, but he was the Warden. And The Green Mile, but it wasn’t Tom Hanks’ prison experience, exactly, that you were asked to share. So this is a bit different, from the outset. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on May 14th, 2009 at 9:55 pm. Updated on August 21st, 2009 at 6:46 pm.