Imprisonment contains a variety of characters, but prison films tends to focus on the same handful of archetypes: Badass that no one dares to move with, the tougher than he sees the newcomer who teaches everyone a lesson after they stupid think They can move with him, or the charismatic leader who gets the cell block to look past their differences and work together. You don’t often watch movies centered around the guy as easy Can Be broken with and become everyone else’s punch bag while his own life gets worse and worse.
But prisons are filled with the guys who never get to a movie screen, and Cal McMaus’s directorial debut ”Inclination“Centers around one of them. Taylor (David Jonsson) are not someone’s worst nightmare or fearless leader. He is a soft -spoken man whose eyes are filled with regret and whose posture suggests a deep desire to only be invisible. He desperately wants some kind of relationship with his young son on the outside, but when he manages to make a call to his child’s mother, he has quickly been dismissed and asked not to contact her again because his son “does not know” him.
The only thing that sometimes wastes his pain is opioan use, as the British prison has a thriving drug trafficking that involves a variety of goods and services. It gets him through the day, but he is too happy to go away from it when he has been given an opportunity for early parole (due to problems with overload of prison, rather than any of his own behavior). The chance of getting back their life is nothing more than a estate, but Taylor is warned that his last months must be completely mistakes.
It should not be a problem, as Taylor would never be mistaken for a problem. But he will soon be assigned a new cellmate, Dee (Tom Blyth), who wants to handle drugs and make a name for himself. Abundant of machismo and misplaced aggression, he quickly assumes that Taylor is someone who can be broken and shaped into an asset to himself. He seems like he may have heard the old word that you need to find the biggest guy in the yard and beat him on your first day in prison, but thought it was going after the smallest and weakest guy would work just as well.
Their relationship is toxic from the start and paints a clear portrait of the ways that hard drugs can take a man’s soul and the violent personalities that capture ports as disguises without even realizing that they have changed. Taylor’s entire prison has revolved around keeping peace and fitting in, but his new circumstances force him to consider how far he is willing to drive his own boundaries to survive.
The film Alternative between Kinematographer Lorenzo Levrini’s carefully composed shots, which often reflect Taylor’s loneliness and regret with cool colored lighting and deep shadows, and vertical telephone camera films of improvised imprisonment. But by switching between found images and something more traditional without connecting to either extreme, “Wasteman” is in an unpleasant middle ground that puts an significant roof on its visual story potential. And while much of the film’s message revolves around the meaningless and brutality in prison violence – a point that no one could possibly miss – McMau and Levrini often lean too heavily on shaky cameras during their fighting scenes, creating their (probably) wanted feeling of chaos at the expenditure for imagery.
In the midst of all the barbarity for the sake of barbarity, the Jonsson carries the film with a deep well of countless regret. There is an innocence that shines through all his actions, which shows that even a man who has spent most of his adult life who is imprisoned does not have to let it change his priorities. Blyth provides a suitable foil to Jonsson’s softness with his endless spring of reckless aggression and forces Taylor’s Primal Survival instinct to hit his more civilized feeling that there must be something more for him in this world. It is the type of high level character work that illustrates why Jonsson is one of the most exciting actors of our time. He simply deserved a better movie to showcase this character.
Rating: C+
“Wasteman” premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival 2025. It is currently seeking US distribution.
Want to keep you updated on IndieWire’s movie Reviews And critical thoughts? Subscribe here To our recently launched newsletter, in review by David Ehrlich, where our main film critic and Head Review’s editor rounds off the best new reviews and streaming choices along with some exclusive Musings – all only available for subscribers.
