Continuing my walk down movie memory lane, next up was 2012’s Brit Prison thriller Offender from director Ron Scalpello ( My Name is Lenny) and starring Joe Cole (TVs Peaky Blinders), Vas Blackwood (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels), Mark Harris (Anuvahood), and Kimberley Nixon (Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging)  

The film starts with Tommy Nix (played by Joe Cole) walking up to a police officer and punching him right in the face, when another police officer tries to intervene, Tommy hits him too and quickly finds himself in court and sentenced to two years in Gravesmere, a youth offenders detention centre for his crime.  During the film we see some flashbacks which fill in the jigsaw pieces of the story as to why Tommy Nix decided to launch an attack on the police officers and why he seems to have a plan for his stay in the violent prison environment.

Whilst you may be thinking that we have seen this plot before in Alan Clarke’s Scum, there is more to the story than simply a tale of a youth offender battling with his fellow inmates. Joe Cole plays Tommy Nix really well and even with the scenes where he speaks no dialogue, you can see with his facial expressions exactly what he wants you to know and Joe plays the duality of damaged human being and a powder keg ready to explode  brilliantly. Offender may not rank up there as one of the classics like Scum does (mainly due to some slightly ropey over the top thug acting with some of the smaller roles in the film). Offender is still a really good prison thriller if you like films like Screwed, and the aforementioned Scum.