Brawl In Cell Block 99 review: Vince Vaughn delivers a powerhouse performance in this extremely violent but very enjoyable genre piece from Bone Tomahawk diretor S. Craig Zahler.
Brawl In Cell Block 99 review by Paul Heath.
Brawl In Cell Block 99 is the new film from S. Craig Zahler, the man who delivered the truly awesome western/ horror Bone Tomahawk a couple of years back. Knowing that should give you a rough idea of what’s in store for you in this gritty drama starring Vince Vaughn, which still manages to shock with its dark subject matter and bloody violence.
Vince Vaughn plays Bradley, a former boxer who we first meet at his place of work, a local garage where he is about to get laid off. To make things worse, he returns home early to learn that his wife Lauren (Jennifer Carpenter) has been having a three-month affair with another man. Somehow Bradley briefly manages to curtail his anger, but then goes to town on his wife’s car – punching through the driver’s window, smashing up the wing-mirrors and pulling off the hood and throwing it into the middle of the street. We then discover that there is a deeper issue – they suffered a miscarriage recently, and both have been attempting to deal with things in very different ways.
Fast-forward 18 months and things have changed. The couple are still together, Lauren now pregnant with the couple’s child, but Bradley has returned to a life of crime to provide for his family, and is the most trusted drug-runner for a local crime syndicate. A job is called, which goes south quite quickly, and Bradley finds himself on the inside – a seven year stretch that will separate him from his wife when she gives birth to their daughter.
When inside, Bradley gets a visit on his second day from Udo Keir’s Placid Man, a calm but intimidating character who informs him that his wife has been kidnapped and an abortionist will perform a procedure on his wife unless he kills a fellow prisoner in a maximum-security facility. The problem is, Bradley is currently being held in a medium security prison, and must do whatever it takes to get to the inmate to save the life of his wife, and the much-loved child that is growing inside her.
Related: TIFF 2017: The Disaster Artist review
To say Brawl In Cell Block 99 is extreme is a massive under-statement. Zahler’s script is a massive slow-burner, the filmmaker very much taking his time in setting up the story and fleshing out his characters. Vaughn’s Bradley is very well-written, and expertly performed, the troubled con a ticking time-bomb that really will do absolutely anything for his family. There’s a foreboding presence to Bradley, even before any violence is carried out on screen, and that’s owed to Vaughn’s supreme acting talent. He’s never been better.
Don Johnson pops up as the bad-ass prison warden – the last person on earth anyone would want to mess with, while Udo Keir’s Placid Man is the most sinister character I’ve seen on screen for quite some time.
The violence is extreme. Very extreme, particularly during the film’s bloody climax one of the most gory and unrelenting sequences seen in cinemas all year.
This is truly masterful stuff, Zahler making the biggest and most impressive stamp on the Hollywood scene since Quentin Tarantino. This is a film to be seen in cinemas with an audience, a film that will have you wincing from your seats for its majority. It is a 130-minute film which feels as tight as a frenetic 80-minute actioner – a movie that packs an almighty punch to the guts, and one of the best experiences of the year.
Brawl In Cell Block 99 review by Paul Heath, September 2017.
Brawl In Cell Block 99 review is released in UK cinemas on 11th October 2017.
