The 72nd Melbourne International Film Festival has started off strong with the world premiere of Charles Williams' debut film, 'Inside'. Williams manages to pull amazing performances out of his cast, both newcomers and Australian industry heavyweights alike, to tell a confronting story of salvation and helplessness.
18-year-old Mel Blight (Vincent Miller, in his debut role) has spent his teens in juvenile detention after his role in a school yard tragedy, and upon his transfer to adult jail is assigned to room with Mark Shepard (Cosmo Jarvis, TV's 'Shōgun'). Mark has just undergone a transfer of his own, having been moved out of solitary confinement for a horrific crime also committed in his teens, gaining him a reputation as one of Australia's most prolific killers. Mark gains instant infamy with his new prison mates, so much so that a contract of $5,000 is soon put on his head. The naïve Mel is recruited by Warren Murfett (Guy Pearce, 'The Shrouds', 'The Convert') to carry out the deed – but with Warren's parole coming up and Mel's growing bond with Mark, the ease of the job is thrown into violent limbo.
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While 'Inside' initially begins as Mel's story, it quickly becomes a three-hander between Mel, Mark and Warren, and it's hard to tell who is giving the best performance of the film. Miller's withdrawn nature, eye twitches and stilted, rare moments of speech make it tough to believe this is his first role considering how excellently he holds his own against his co-stars. Jarvis' terrifyingly accurate Australian accent will go down as the best since 'Nitram's' Caleb Landry Jones, his husky tone the kind you might hear after staying out a bit too late in a country pub. Additionally, despite a lack of physical transformation, Pearce completely disappears into the role of Warren, a deceptively well-to-do inmate whose demons come crashing back with disastrous effects. It's never quite clear why Warren really wants Mel to be the one to murder Mark; is it because Mel is gullible? Because he thinks it will buy Mel social protection in the new prison? Or is it because he sees that Mel has also acquiesced to the idea that they might never find salvation?
Claustrophobia and tension lurk in every single corner of 'Inside'; from the film's opening moments, Mel is seen in his mother's belly during an ultrasound, a trapped child who in the opening voiceover believes he is doomed to be trapped in a life of evil and incarceration.
Claustrophobia and tension lurk in every single corner of 'Inside'; from the film's opening moments, Mel is seen in his mother's belly during an ultrasound, a trapped child who in the opening voiceover believes he is doomed to be trapped in a life of evil and incarceration. The film pushes this philosophy further with Warren's arc, which culminates in the best scene of the film. I won't give too much away, but I doubt my heart rate will be normal again during the Melbourne Cup for quite some time.
'Inside' doesn't seem interested with exploring the politics behind the movement of these inmates from different parts of the prison system, or even how the system intends to successfully rehabilitate them, nor does it want to push any filmmaking envelopes. Instead, it focuses on how possible the inmates feel it is to redeem themselves. Mark is a man who has seemingly "found God" in his own way, which leads to initial ridicule from the other inmates as he ropes Mel in to helping him run church services. Even when Mel doesn't seem too convinced, it's Mark's blind passion – or maybe a morbid curiosity – that gets inmates filling the church pews.
'Inside' isn't reinventing the Aussie thriller, but it does establish Williams as a filmmaker who could see his name someday fall in the same sentence as Justin Kurzel ('Nitram,' 'Snowtown'), Thomas M. Wright ('The Stranger') or David Michôd ('Animal Kindgom'). It's a film that rightfully demands to be talked about.