Review of Starred Up (2014) by Steve D — 14 Aug 2014

Definitely one for all you Alpha Males (and GeezerBirds) out there, Starred Up has a sweaty gym (arent they all?), sweary words, shouting, fisticuffs (whilst shouting), naked manflesh and homosexuality. Whats not to like? Except I didn't really and this was mainly down to not really understanding what it was trying to say and I found it difficult to like the main lead Eric but maybe that was the point.

Eric arrives in big man's prison from a young offenders institution before he is of the right age because he is "starred up" which from what I can glean basically means that he is a loon. His Dad is already there and has been for some time and is now a man of standing on the block. Eric straight away sets about letting the fellow inmates in the block know that he is double hard by almost killing the bloke across the way because he had the audacity to borrow his lighter to Eric. Fair enough some might say, a mans lighter when inside is like the next mans wife, you just don't mess with such stuff. This leads to one of many confrontations with the prison staff where he stumbles across the prison psychotherapist. He protects Eric from the warden and his staff and asks him to join his group. Eric then does his best to disrupt everything and antagonise those who are trying to help him. He confesses to the psychotherapist that he was abused as a child so he knows about the tactics people use to gain trust and probably goes some way to explaining his anger towards his Dad. Anyway, all ends with Dad saying that he is proud of Eric and I couldn't see why he would be. Maybe hes proud of him being a double hard mentalist, some are very easily pleased.

Jack O'Connell in the lead role as Eric is convincing. Rupert Friend is also good as the psychotherapist who whilst from a privileged background has to be in prison even if as a volunteer. I think a real prison was used as the set and this part certainly works for me. Starred Up is certainly gritty and realistic and the set goes a long way to helping with this.

I've seen a number of reviews refer to Starred Up as a smart film but I can't see it. I guess my issue is that I wasn't really sure what it was trying to say (if anything). Was it saying being double hard is good cos you will gain respect from your Dad (who you probably don't like anyway). Was it saying practice and hone your mentalist tendencies at a young mans prison and you can succeed in proper prison. Was it saying.......yawn, ZZZzzzzzzzzz, sorry I nodded off there for a minute.