Sunday 23 August 2015

Starred Up (2013 David Mackenzie)

It might have been helpful for the title to have been explained (moved to adult prison).

Searing drama in which you keep forgetting to breathe, so unpredictable is the behaviour of Eric Love and his actor Jack O'Connell. It's almost a scary question to ask where he draws his anger from to give a performance of this intensity. Was originally drawn to the film by this quote from Mark Kermode in 'The Guardian': "you half expect him to jump out of the screen and remonstrate forcibly with the audience" and indeed it is an amazing performance, ably supported by Rupert Friend, Ben Mendelsohn, David Ajala, Anthony Welsh, the fabulously named Gershwyn Eustache Jr etc. (Scenes in group do occasionally seem like an actors' workshop).

Jonathan Asser - debut screenwriter - was a prison therapist himself, told here, and the film has things to say. The ending is moving.

So, the best way to watch it is after you've been lulled by the St Trinian's films.


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