Director: David Mackenzie
Writer: Jonathan Asser
Stars: Jack O'Connell, Rupert Friend, Ben Mendelsohn
Starred Up is a film very much aware of the threat of cliché,
you’d be hard push to find any prison genre films which don’t feature or at
least reference hierarchal violence, racial tensions and captive homosexuality.
David Mackenzie’s prison drama in referencing such components is a clash of
grounded character study and boisterous narrative elements which allows the
film a fire and ice quality.
The fire is that present in lead Jack O’Connell’s impressive
display as young Eric, whose explosive propensity for violence has landed him
with a premature graduation from Youth Offending status to big boy jail time. Making
Eric’s plight all the more difficult is the somewhat contrived presence of his
father (Ben Mendelsohn) in the same block, where some seemingly late life
lessons are attempted to be passed on with the aim of keeping his stray pup in
line.
Where Starred Up finds conflict within itself is the gritty
style of its tone, at times we peer voyeur like at the cold light of day procedurals
our subjects must endure as well as their emotional and psychological frame of
mind, reflected in times of personal and collective solace. Whilst it is
difficult not think back to Scum (1979) as an inevitable comparison, Mackenzie’s
film copes skilfully with unavoidable platitude so much so that Starred Up
is able to sustain a pleasant feeling of freshness throughout.
8/10
My Top Prison Movies
5. A Prophet (2009)
Epic French crime drama about an young Arab man whose incarceration
sets him on the path to becoming the hea of an organised crime syndicate.
4. Lions Den (2008)
Argentine drama about a young woman’s struggle to cope with
life in prison with added complication of being pregnant and the subsequent
struggle for custody.
3. Cool Hand Luke (1967)
Hollywood Legend Paul Newman is the renegade inmate at a
Rural prison trying to win the respect of fellow prisoners.
2. Midnight Express (1978)
2. Midnight Express (1978)
True Story of an American drug mule who after being caught
must endure life in a Turkish prison.
1. Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Staggering tale of friendship between a veteran Con and a falsely
imprisoned man who battle against the institutionalisation of their fellow
inmates and those running the prison.
