Starred Up

Directed by David Mackenzie
Starring Jack O’Connell, Ben Mendelsohn, Rupert Friend, Sian Breckin, Sam Spruell, David Ajala, Anthony Welsh, Peter Ferdinando

Possibly best described as a brutal, British alternative to Good Will Hunting, David Mackenzie’s Starred Up – which celebrates its tenth anniversary this year – is a sucker punch of a prison drama that explores how the sins of the father become the cross to bear of the son. A lacerating look at generational trauma and the cycle of violence as it exists between fathers and sons bound by figurative and literal incarceration, Mackenzie’s film – featuring a breakout big-screen turn from Jack O’Connell and an incendiary Ben Mendelsohn – is an extraordinary, underappreciated British modern classic.

Based on the experiences of former HMP Wandsworth voluntary therapist Jonathan Asser, Starred Up stars Eric (O’Connell) as a young criminal that has been “starred up”. In layman’s terms, he’s been transferred from a juvenile prison to a high security adult prison due to his violent nature. There he meets his father, Neville (Mendelsohn), who is serving a life sentence at this prison and working as a lieutenant for the crime boss running the clink from the inside. He also meets Oliver (Rupert Friend), a volunteer prison therapist who convinces him to join his therapy group. For all three men, their lives will never be the same again.