Starred Up 2014

John Anderson, Wall Street Journal: Audiences, the less squeamish at least, will benefit from Mr. Mackenzie's ability to wring white-knuckling tension out of Mr. Asser's intelligent story. Read more

Peter Debruge, Variety: Mackenzie isn't attempting to craft a larger-than-life antihero here, but delving into the sociology of this hellish subculture, where prisoners and staff alike coexist in this dehumanizing environment. Read more

Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, AV Club: What the movie excels at, among other things, is putting the viewer into the prison life mindset, laying dramatic groundwork that allows the audience to intuit when an unspoken rule-like crossing the prison's strict racial boundaries-has been broken. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: It's almost as difficult to sit through "Starred Up" as it is satisfying to watch it. Read more

Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader: This is strong medicine, yet it's also exhilarating. Read more

Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly: O'Connell bristles with terrifying hair-trigger unpredictability. Watching him, you feel like you're witnessing the arrival of a new movie star. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: Young actor Jack O'Connell is the main attraction in this tough British drama. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: It marries ferocious, unnerving violence and waves of profanity to powerful, psychologically acute performances in a way that is intensely dramatic as well as almost unbearable to watch at times. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: [An] unusually cohesive and exciting prison drama ... Read more

Mark Jenkins, NPR: Starred Up has three powerful advantages: a realistic setting, fierce performances and the insight brought by scripter Jonathan Asser, who was an Oliver-like counselor in a tough London jail. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: Expect to hear a lot more from English actor Jack O'Connell, who holds the screen as well as his character, Eric, commands a cellblock. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: Turns the complicated dynamic between a young prisoner and his problematic mentor into a ferocious psychodrama that locks you in and refuses to let you go. Read more

Michael Sragow, Orange County Register: The British prison movie Starred Up has the excitement of a nonstop psychological cage fight, but its goal is enlightenment, not terror or cheap thrills. Read more

David Hiltbrand, Philadelphia Inquirer: The raw emotions on display need no translation. David Mackenzie directs the film in a piercingly realistic style. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Starred Up is a small indie film in danger of slipping through the cracks at the Hollywood-driven multiplex. Finding it - in theaters or on VOD - is well worth the effort. Read more

Walter V. Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle: Director David Mackenzie has empathy for the characters, but also knows how to ratchet up the tension and make the scene of mayhem pack a wallop. Read more

Tom Huddleston, Time Out: For the most part this is furiously compelling stuff, convincingly mounted and superbly acted Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Village Voice: As harrowing as some of the depicted incidents are - this is prison, after all - Mackenzie resists sensationalism, preferring to keep his sights on the human element. By the end, he's worked a kind of alchemy. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Starred Up is an edgy, teeming thriller, brilliantly disorienting, making strange a world we thought we knew, at least from other movies. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: "Starred Up" manages to be sympathetic, not only because of O'Connell's galvanizing turn, but also Asser and director David Mackenzie's unwavering commitment to portraying his character with as much compassion as brutal honesty. Read more