100% on Rotten Tomatoes
Michael Inside tells the story of an 18-year-old man named Michael (Dafhyd Flynn) that’s living in a Dublin housing estate with his grandfather. After being caught holding drugs for his friend’s older brother, Michael is sentenced to 3 months in prison.
What unfolds is a fascinating study of what happens when everything goes wrong in one of the bleakest and most demanding environments possible. Director Frank Berry shoots the film with a gritty documentary aesthetic and the performances are nothing short of excellent.
At present, the film holds an 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes with The Guardian noting that it’s “fierce, unsentimental, engrossing.” The Times state that “it’s cautionary and terrifying with a tough fatalistic ending,” while Irish broadcaster RTÉ praise the fact that Berry manages to keep the “tension in a drama from start to finish.”
At the time of its release, JOE.ie’s Rory Cashin was absolutely glowing about Michael Inside – particularly the performances of Moe Dunford and Dafhyd Flynn.
“It’s a film about how someone that’s very impressionable, when placed in the wrong circumstances, can be made so much worse than the system that’s supposed to protect them in the first place. I think that it will go down as one of the best Irish films of this generation. The performances in it are fantastic. Frank Berry (director) gets to an incredibly real place with everyone in it and as for the lead actor (Dafhyd Flynn) – he runs the whole gambit.”
He adds: “At the start, he’s very sensitive while simultaneously pretending to be tough. He then changes to being completely out of his depth and ultimately, he ends up being the type of person that should actually be in prison. Moe Dunford is fantastic in it too – he’s really building up a very impressive C.V. for himself and in this, he goes back and forth from being a comforting presence to being the most intimidating character imaginable. It’s a very tough but brilliant and rewarding watch.”
After seeing Michael Inside, you’ll definitely agree.
Check it out on Netflix.
Clip via WildCard Distribution
