Michael Inside (2018)

Outlaw Pete

Seen this latest film from Frank Berry yesterday at a Q&A screening and thought it was fantastic............

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGtf81pNTnc

Dafhyd Flynn (who plays the lead) is excellent. He has an outstanding amount of on screen presence for such a young lad with very little acting experience. Not naming any names but some recent actors who have come out of Ireland and done quite well have left me scratching my head a little, as I haven't quite got the intrigue in them at all, but if there is any justice this young lad will soon be getting a similar level of attention.

The film itself is gripping throughout. Love the close up camera scenes but mostly I love how few edits there are in scenes. That's a real bug bear for me when scenes are jumping all over the damn place. Not so here.

Berry is compared with Ken Loach at times and while the comparisons are obvious, I don't feel he's as preachy as Loach. There is lots of room left for viewers to make up their own mind.

Anyway, fcuk Cardboard Gangsters. Was at a Q&A for that also and never heard so much bollox being spoken in all my life. This is the film that one pretended to be.

ryaner777

Seen it as part of screen unseen. Thought it was awful. Felt like 2 hour fair city episode.

The actor playing the granddad was good but the some of the others were really poor.

That speech from the ex junkie in the classroom was horrific and when the 8 year old on the BMX said "that's what happens when you get involved with the wrong crowd" I nearly got up and left.

Outlaw Pete

ryaner777 wrote: »

That speech from the ex junkie in the classroom was horrific...

Yeah, I agree with that alright........

But I think you're way off on the rest of the film. The only aspect it has in common with Fair City would be the accents. Other than that I can't see why anyone would compare the two.

Agent Coulson

I read that as Michael Ironside and thought deadly that will be a great doc.

Easy Rod

Thought this was excellent alright but quite grim, really got across the hopelessness of the prison system.

Tension was ratcheted up quite high throughout.

Ferris_Bueller

Best film I've seen in cinema in ages. It had me on edge watching it and it felt very realistic and almost as if you could put yourself in his shoes, some of the scenes when he is in prison are great and you can really feel the tension, don't want to say too much to give anything away but definitely worth going to see in my opinion.

Goodshape

I thought this was a little lacking unfortunately. Or, at least, didn't quite live up to my expectations.

The comparisons with Ken Loach are obvious and inevitable, but whereas a film like I, Daniel Blake felt an intimate and personal story from the very real and human perspective of the protagonist, Michael Inside never quite achieved that and always felt like an outsider looking in at these poor working class struggles. A little too staged, or too distant.

That aside though, it is a well made film. Good performances, and I always enjoy a long unbroken shot or two.

gmisk

ryaner777 wrote: »

Seen it as part of screen unseen. Thought it was awful. Felt like 2 hour fair city episode.

The actor playing the granddad was good but the some of the others were really poor.

That speech from the ex junkie in the classroom was horrific and when the 8 year old on the BMX said "that's what happens when you get involved with the wrong crowd" I nearly got up and left.

Saw this today and have to agree.
I was fairly disappointed in it, despite being fairly well acted mostly it just didn't feel believeable at all. A predictable trudge of a film.

Lefty2Guns

Watched it last night and enjoyed it. More for the story it tells than the acting.

Sleepy

Bumping as it's on Netflix at the moment. I really enjoyed this, good tension in the prison scenes.

Mark25

Yeah pretty good overall especially as it seemed relatively low budget.

There was good tension there right the way through. I thought the early prison scenes were realistic but then less so later on. Brought back some memories!

Obviously there was a story to be told and things were going to pan out a certain way and not everybody's experience is like that. Him looking so young and vulnerable made it more tense.

But overall not at all bad for an Irish film on the subject.

Sleepy

Mark25 wrote: »

Yeah pretty good overall especially as it seemed relatively low budget.

There was good tension there right the way through. I thought the early prison scenes were realistic but then less so later on. Brought back some memories!

Obviously there was a story to be told and things were going to pan out a certain way and not everybody's experience is like that. Him looking so young and vulnerable made it more tense.

But overall not at all bad for an Irish film on the subject.

IIRC you spent some time inside yourself Mark25? How accurate were the prison scenes and how much of it was wildly unrealistic?

Mark25

Yeah overall was pretty accurate. I don't know if there is any other film out there that is meant to be set in a current Irish prison.

Its a few years since i was in so then St Pats was still open so all the young prisoners (18-21) went there so you wouldn't have a really young prisoner like the character in with the older prisoners but Pats is closed now so it must happen now.

I really think they got the whole start right from being taken down to court until he got onto his landing and the first time in the yard. It was like being back there. Some of the things they got spot on was the banter in the holding cell (what are you in for, where are you from etc) with people checking you out and going on the prison van with the dog chain (getting handcuffed to an officer as well as your own handcuffs), the strip search, the BOSS chair and the same grey tracksuit I got. The only things really different for me was the prison van was a lot noisier and that adds to the tension and had a bit more privacyy geting strip searched and showered. But other stuff like getting asked if you were fighting with people was exactly the same.

Little things like the way people walked about the yard in circles and getting used to sitting around and waiting and getting used to moving in line and going through the gates was accurate. A few little things that weren't true for me was that when they showed lads smoking they always had proper smokes where nearly everybody smokes dust (rollies). Also there were a few scenes where they showed prisoners sitting around in what was meant to look like a dining hall but they don't have them - you eat all your food in your cell.

If you are doing a short sentence like he was you do end up just sitting around most of the time but if you are doing a longer sentence you have things to do during the day - work or education or training.

And yeah it was totally believable about getting involved in holding stuff like phones or drugs and getting involved in the crap that goes on. But that doesn't happen to everybody and you can steer clear of that. But lads who are involved in gangs on the outside or want drugs or protection that happens. And the scene with the boiling water - well it doesn't happen as much as people think but it does happen. Like in this that normally happens when people get into debt or fall out with others.

The Officers didn't see to be around at all in this and they were around more than that where I was. They would be around more than it showed and would be around soon enough when things kicked off which wasn't shown. It gave a good idea of the tension that is always there though and people being on edge. The bits they did show of the Officers mainly just escorting prisoners was pretty much the way they would talk to you though.

Mountjoy was mainly single cells when I was there - I think it is all single cells by now so that would be a difference but Wheatfield had a shared cell so a lot of things would vary from prison to prison.

But overall definitely got it mostly right and I found it believable.