Review #1,380: 'Brawl in Cell Block 99' (2017)

For his debut film, 2015's Bone Tomahawk, writer, director and composer S. Craig Zahler delivered one of the most unforgettable films of the year. As it begins, Bone Tomahawk seems to be a familiar men-on-a-rescue-mission movie set in the Old West, with four vastly different personalities set up to clash on the way. If you've seen it, you'll know that the western tropes soon give way to something all the more horrifying and tense, before descending into a horrific gore-fest at the climax. It was one of the best films of 2015, and Zahler once again rummages around in the genre sack for his follow-up, Brawl in Cell Block 99, another unpredictable and incredibly violent genre-bender that seems to take much of its inspiration from the grindhouse films of the 1970s, both visually and tonally. It also features a career-best performance from a monstrous Vince Vaughn.

Bradley (Vaughn) is an ex-con and former drug addict earning an honest living at an auto-repair shop. When the state of the American economy ensures that his services are no longer required, the imposing giant returns home to the revelation that his wife Lauren (Jennifer Carpenter) has been having an affair for the past 3 months. Bradley deals with the situation calmly, informing his wife that he is to return to his drug-dealing roots to earn the cash required for a fresh start, but not before tearing her car apart with his bare hands. Fast forward 18 months later, and Bradley is still peddling drugs, getting involved with a Mexican gang and a couple of their idiot enforcers. When a deal goes horribly wrong, Bradley is sent to the slammer to serve a hefty 7 year sentence, but the cartel aren't quite done with him. In order to repay his debt for the lost property, he must carry out a hit under the orders of Euro-sleaze 'the Placid Man' (who else but Udo Kier?), otherwise a surgeon will remove the limbs of his unborn child and ensure that it lives on to be deformed. With his target in Cell Block 99, a maximum security prison ran by the sadistic Warden Tuggs (Don Johnson), Bradley must brutalise his way through the system until he is close enough to carry out the hit.

Brawl in Cell Block 99 begins as a slow-paced crime drama, establishing Bradley as a wall of strength when taking care of business, before moving on into wince-inducing, bone-cracking, head-stomping B-movie territory. It maintains an atmosphere of tension throughout, with each scene carrying a sense of dread and an expectancy that violence could erupt at any second. At the centre of it all is Vaughn, who laces the character with a dry wit and a simmering rage. He has no desire to hurt people without reason, so often turns his rage elsewhere. His first few minutes within a jail cell is spent looking for something, anything, to smash. But hurting people is what he does best, and he thumps, stomps and breaks his way through anyone foolish enough to stand between him and his quest to save his family. In many ways, the explosions of violence and gore mirror the second half of Bone Tomahawk, and while we may not understand why, it feels utterly exhilarating while we watch on between our fingers. It seems to have flown under many people's radar, somewhat unfairly, but cult adoration will surely come. It further cements Zahler's reputation as a filmmaker to keep an eye on, and while his second feature could certainly do with a 15 minute trim, Brawl in Cell Block 99 explores the nature of rage with ferocious and unflinching execution.


Directed by: S. Craig Zahler
Starring: Vince Vaughn, Jennifer Carpenter, Don Johnson, Udo Kier, Marc Blucas
Country: USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie