Excellent Film

I agree, it was very interesting and thought provoking. Granted, it was also squirming in my seat uncomfortable to watch. I have a love/hate relationship with this movie. It is so depressing and appears so honest that I feel like the whole time I'm watching it I'm being dragged through the mud. And for another thing, while the man who played the older prisoner was excellent in his part...he was so aggravatingly annoying when he would go on his monologues that I wanted to just stab him with...a pencil. I think the movie was great, though I mostly rented it because Michael Pitt was in it (swoon), but I definitely won't be watching it again for a loooong, looooooong time.

I think this film is absolutely amazing and of all Michael Pitt's films this is probably his best performance. It plays out like a theatre piece, not heavy on plot, but so tense regardless - absolutely captivating. The acting is just fantastic, Guirgis played his part surprisingly sensitively - he could easily have tipped over into the sociopathic bully role, yet somehow he manages to make the part even more disturbing by keeping a human, sympathetic edge. Pitt is incredible, he can convey so much with just a look, he doesn't need lines to show what his character is feeling and experiencing. It isn't an easy watch, but my eyes were glued to the screen and I had to watch it again a few days later because it just blew me away. I think this is an amazing piece of cinema, too character driven and understated to be main stream, but nonetheless an under-rated gem.

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