Starred Up, Various Cinemas

Starred Up follows the travails of Eric (Jack O’Connell of Skins fame), a young prisoner who is transferred to the same prison in which his father (Ben Mendelsohn) is an inmate. This is a good old British prison-drama: shank-jabbings, bludgeonings, hierarchies. If the formula lacks novelty, it's the lead performances have got this Brit flick noticed
The film’s title refers to prison-slang for the event whereby a young offender, having been deemed too violent for his peers, is relocated to an adult institution. And this authentic tone is testament to writer Jonathan Asser’s time spent with violent offenders in Wandsworth prison. Although it is Asser’s debut feature, award winning director David Mackenzie is no stranger to successful indie Brit flicks. Having worked with Ewan Mcgregor and Tilda Swinton in the BAFTA nominated Young Adam and Jamie Bell in Hallam Foe, Mackenzie promises to bring a gritty veracity to this brutal story. 
Jack O’Connell heads the pack of this stellar cast including Sam Spruell (Defiance, The Hurt Locker) and Rupert Friend (The Young Victoria, Pride and Prejudice). O’Connell burst to fame for his performance in the E4 hit TV show Skins and went on to appear in Shane Meadows’s British epic This is England and the disturbing 2008 horror movie Eden Lake. He's always been promising, but finally we're seeing what he can do: this performance is exceptional. Matching him for on screen intensity is Ben Mendelsohn whose recent rise to the pinnacle unsettling-character acting has taken the film industry by storm. The drug-addicted low life in Killing Them Softly along with his jaw-droppingly psychotic gang leader in brutal Aussie film Animal Kingdom are a potent mix of credits that are certain to inform the unruly feel of Starred Up.  
The film premiered at the BFI London Film Festival and was greeted with a positive response, with critics paying tribute to the superb acting of its cast and Mackenzie’s mix of beauty and brutality in his composition. Starred Up promises to be packed with enough gruesome action and character turmoil to keep you gripped throughout.