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Starred Up Movie Review

Starred Up is a 2014 British prison crime drama film directed by David Mackenzie and starring Jack O’Connell in the main role. It’s a very well performed, but otherwise weak film.

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“It’s fucking prison, ain’t it?“

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When a violent teenager, Eric, is transferred to an adult prison facility, he bumps into his estranged father there. Eric battles to save his life when he faces cruel inmates and corruption in prison. This is yet another prison movie that did not appeal to me, similarly to the renowned ‘A Prophet’, though I did prefer this one of the two. It’s a movie that is so familiar in its narrative that it had nothing new or fresh to offer to audiences.

As somebody who is not a fan of crime and prison movies, I would really need to see something entirely unique and daring to really appreciate a movie set in this facility, which this flick sadly lacked. For the vast majority of its runtime, I was devoted to the characters fighting each other and yelling “fuck” for literally hundreds of times. And I am sorry, but that is just not my idea of a good time at the movies.

With that being said, Starred Up was worth seeing for its uniformly strong acting performances. Yes, Rupert Friend and Ben Mendelsohn are both excellent in their supporting turns, but it is Jack O’Connell who stole the movie from both of them. He portrays the protagonist of the picture, and although the character work is weak on him as it was on everybody else, he elevated it with his incredible performance.

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This young actor had a tremendous year in 2014 with this and ‘71’, so it’s a shame that he pretty much disappeared afterward. He showed so much potential that he really should have gotten more roles out of this movie in particular. His charisma, viciousness and kineticism made him instantly believable in the role. He showed a true star quality in what is one of the best performances of this year. It’s a shame that the directing, acting and writing failed him as he really deserved better material. The premise with the father-son dynamic was interesting, but they failed to utilize it properly, resulting in a repetitive, frustrating bore of a movie.