Starred Up (2013)

After seeing rave 5 star reviews of this film flying about I thought I'd give this a watch and see if it lives up to the large hype that followed it. oh and it also took away 3 awards at the British Independent Film Awards 2013 including best director and best screenplay.

Now, I've always been a fan of Jack O'Connell ever since I first saw him on Skins playing the role of 'James Cook', I thought he was brilliant, he brought a real fire and realism to the role that made the character 'James Cook' just so entertaining to watch but this isn't Jack O'Connell's biography so lets get to 'Starred Up'. O'Connell plays a youth offender(Eric Love) that has been prematurely moved to an adult prison due to the extent of his crimes (which are never disclosed in any detail). O'Connell plays these roles with such ease and realism that the performance is always exceptional but it does raise the question, is Jack O'Connell a one trick pony actor? Like Statham, Danny Dyer, Vinnie Jones, actors that can only play that stereotypical cockney hard man? Possibly, but that doesn't mean to say that he can't be successful in his own right playing these roles.

The film itself is pretty  good; now I'm not going to provide you with a full synopsis here (if that's what your into stop wasting your time and just visit IMDB) but the story is based around O'Connell's character Eric Love meeting his dad in prison and basically realizing how much of a cock his dad really, Love goes through a process within the prison of maturing by joining a group ran by a therapist. Now this group isn't necessarily a therapy sessions, a select few of the inmates attend and chat about any old shit; needless to say tensions rise on various occasions with chat surrounding racial issues and a lot of digs at each others mums... it certainly makes entertaining and interesting viewing. Initially Love is aggressive towards all authority and attacks police after knocking out a fellow inmate. This creates a very Bronson like scene in which Love greases up his body and beckons the police officers to enter his cell and takes most of them down and holds one hostage. This then leads on to Love biting one of the officers cocks but ill not spoil that scene for you. The group then protect Love and are a major part of his maturing process. With Love's father opposing this group and what its doing to his son this creates tension and anger between the two, proving a violent, gritty and entertaining film.