Starred Up

[sharkgirl]

Another one for the "enjoyed" this film but was disturbed that I did team. If any one is considering a life of crime this will set them on the straight and narrow, it's not glamorous or cool, it's tough, mean and violent. The story was well told with everything falling into place at the end with the father son reconciliation. Normally I hate bad language/violence in a film and have been known to walk out if it's random and uncalled for but the language/violence was totally in context and in my mind quite necessary and realistic. It was one of those films where you come out and think wow is that for real and how can it be, knowing full well because is was Film 4 it is more than likely an accurate, well researched portrayal and very sad to think some people are in this situation now through choice but many more through circumstance. Was with o/h who also "enjoyed" the movie. 8/10 from us.

[sharkgirl]

Forgot to say, this was well, well out of my comfort zone, I would never have chosen to see this film in a million years but that's why these previews are great. I'm more of a Labor Day girl, which was a fab. movie. And how did o/h get one of those thumbs up piccies appear in my original post? Maybe I'll get another one here but you know what I mean ...

[RevKeith39]

Read the preview, saw it was made under Film 4 with National Lottery money, so knew exactly what to expect! 'Uncompromising British drama' always means the same thing! That said, it was well made and well acted, though very lightweight on plot development. Didn't really go anywhere of say anything, beyond 'prison is full of people who are not very nice.' Ending some found moving but I found it predictable. However, the film has stayed in my head and I was engrossed while watching.

7/10

[LondonCityNights]

I really enjoyed it. I have to go to prisons as part of my job - and it was uncomfortably close to reality at times.

Full review:

http://www.londoncitynights.com/2014/03 ... david.html

★★★★

[roseddy]

I'm a very squeamish person but I felt that the violence wasn't over done. I felt empathy towards the characters in the anger management group as they were fundamentally decent people who become violent, partly in response to the fact that they felt they were constantly at risk of attack. Very well acted, in my opinion.

[Diamond1]

Not an easy film to watch. The violence was scary and and horrific. The acting was brilliant and the fly-on-the-wall feeling of watching was often harrowing and the whole film felt uncomfortably real. I would never have gone to see that film without the free ticket but am now glad I saw it. The anger and futility of it all came across and was shocking and frightening to behold. Yet in the end I felt deeply sorry for the young man. Worth seeing and think about it all.

[Kirsty]

I just saw this it was really quite good although the end somewhat a bit flat and abrupt. decent watch just the same.

[cliveas]

This film is very economical and I found it gripping, with an interesting central relationship and some decent acting. However the rather bleak material could hardly be called entertaining, was very difficult to relate to and there was also a feeling of having seen most of this so many times before. It was very well made though, with a few new (to me anyway) ideas and a couple of very funny moments amongst the bleakness.

I did find the film biased in it's view of the prison system although I've had to rethink that after the very interesting Q&A. The director and lead actor were interesting from the respect of the making of the film but it was the writer with his huge knowledge of the prison system who was particularly revealing. And of course having a Kanga, sorry Prison Officer in the audience who was prepared to speak so openly was fascinating although frankly I found what he and the writer had to say downright disturbing.

[kkennedy]

Saw this at Glasgow, not one I would recommend to someone, watchable

[RAZORBACK]

Finally got to see this earlier today and have to say I was pretty impressed, it felt very authentic and featured some great performances including (surprisingly) Jack O'Connell's.

Overall I thought it was a very decent hard hitting drama that did more than enough to get an 8/10 from me...