“Williams decides to play the underlying tension instead of graphic violence as he prefers to show restraint and look into the hearts of his characters. Most of the violence is off screen as it’s not about action. This film is about trying to reach redemption.”
Con Nats
4 Shivs
Opens 27th Feb
Prison drama is a genre Aussies have excelled at and Inside is writer-director Charles Williams’ first feature which debuted at the Melbourne Film Festival last year.
Mel (Vincent Miller) is a young baby-faced transfer from juvey who only has a year before he applies for parole. Firstly, he’s placed with Mark Sheppard (Cosmo Jarvis) who is a notorious child killer. He leads the religious services and has a big bounty on his head. Mel has a meltdown when he realises he doesn’t want to go on parole and contemplates killing Sheppard. He’s then placed with Warren (Guy Pearce) who is a month or two from parole but owes a lot of money. He is supposed to mentor young Mel but doesn’t lead him down the right path. They each have their own journeys which become entangled.
The acting is top bunk. Pearce has developed so much depth as an actor. He’s assured and fragile and his scenes leading up to and reconnecting with his son Adrian (Toby Wallace) are brilliantly awkward. Jarvis (Lady Macbeth) as Sheppard is also excellent. He is menacing without using aggression and remodels his speech and movement to avoid being a caricature. Mel Bright has his innocence look down pat in his feature debut. Even the supports have impressive CVs, from right down to Toby Wallace and Chloe Hayden.
Williams attended the preview screening to introduce the film and his nervousness contradicted the confidence of his film making. He said he had lived this film for six years. He seems to have made good use of his time. The well-rounded characters might have their dark sides but there is also some good inside them. Every character has character, right down to the supports and his casting is excellent. I didn’t realise many of these actors are English as their Australian accents are seamless.
Prison dramas promise explosive drama. Lots of caged testosterone and a code of violence only needing a wrong look to set it off. Williams decides to play the underlying tension instead of graphic violence as he prefers to show restraint and look into the hearts of his
characters. Most of the violence is off screen as it’s not about action. This film is about trying to reach redemption. This is brave film making for a debut and my only criticisms are some script lines which cause minor confusion and an unmotivated desire to kill Sheppard by Mel.
But these are minor issues.
It good to see a new Australian film maker take to his craft so well and ignore the cliches and overwriting that the funding bodies like to encourage. The script has attracted incredibly good acting talent for a reason. It’s not a typical Australian prison drama. This is so much more.
Con Nats, On The Screen
