Critics reviews

Wasteman is an engrossing redemption tale... Cal McMau ushers the viewer into this dangerous environment. One feels as if they’re being tugged by the shirt sleeve into the cold fray of the hostile halls and spaces.

McMau’s feature directorial debut hardly reinvents the [prison drama] formula, but it does remind audiences what remains so sturdy about the premise of an ordinary man trying to stay alive behind bars. And thanks to the latest impressive turn from rising star David Jonsson, “Wasteman” even finds a few new notes to play within a familiar stark melody.

Prison movies are often an acting showcase, and Wasteman is no different. Jonsson continues his streak of terrific performances... Taylor dominates the movie... [and] Blyth is no slouch, either... Wasteman is a sharp exploration of how prison can affirm one’s humanity, and just as easily strip it away.

The increasingly nasty one-upsmanship of McMau’s characters keeps us invested as spectators. But that’s not the source of the film’s hypnotic pull; it’s the evolving interplay between [David Jonsson] and [Tom Blyth]... “Wasteman” is simultaneously a gritty psychodrama packed with sharply observed details... and a hardboiled macho melodrama that’s mainly concerned with making you wonder which of these tough guys will make it to the finish line.

“Wasteman” twists what is on the surface a fight between a psychotic prisoner and his meek cellmate into a compelling meditation on how prison can strip away one’s humanity.

Wasteman proves Billy Wilder’s adage about what makes a good movie: “three good scenes and no bad ones.” The script doesn’t reinvent the prison genre, but it engagingly explores factional conflicts and outside-inside tensions felt by prisoners on the verge of release. The story balances specificity with narrative economy, ensuring that the film never feels blandly derivative.

This urgent and painfully tense feature is a superb platform for showstopping work from Jonsson and Blyth... Screenwriters Hunter Andrews and Eoin Doran paint a depressingly credible picture of an overstretched and inhumane institution that makes it as difficult as possible for people to turn their lives around.

Superbly acted but almost unbearably brutal, Cal McMau’s Wasteman captures the realities of life behind bars with such intensity that you can practically taste the testosterone... McMau’s lean, light-footed direction combines handheld camera with phone footage to visceral and nerve-racking effect.

Cal McMau’s debut takes the well-worn path of prison dramas... But there’s enough of a noxious stink in the air... that [actor David] Jonsson has the material he needs to fully mesmerise.

It’s the rich, rounded performances from Jonsson and Blyth that make this so compelling... An energetic, urgent and damning assessment of our prison crisis, Wasteman marks Cal McMau as an exciting new homegrown director.

[A] brutally violent, gripping British prison movie... Some of the tropes are familiar, but [Wasteman] sidesteps the cliches with the committed acting and fierce storytelling punch... The performances of Jonsson and Blyth are fierce and overwhelmingly convincing.

It may be a low-budget flick with a simple plot, but Wasteman’s strong script, combined with its powerful performances, creates one savage, heart-pounding experience that’s not to be missed.