With Mister Foe, Perfect Sense, and more, Scottish director David Mackenzie has been making quality dramas for over a decade, and it looks like he’s finally set to get his due. This past week we got news he’d be stepping in for David O. Russell on a major Warner Bros. and now today brings the first trailer for perhaps what’s his most acclaimed film which debuted on last year’s festival circuit, Starred Up.
One of the best 2014 films we’ve already seen, we said in our review from TIFF that “in an opening sequence, as he’s arriving to adult prison, Eric (Jack O’Connell) is given a thorough inspection in a moment that clues us in to the kind of movie Starred Up will be: a no-holds barred, explicit exploration of prison culture” and it’s “a more extreme and, often, more exciting exploration of themes MacKenzie has previously tackled.” Check out the new trailer and poster below for the film also starring Ben Mendelsohn and Rupert Friend.
Update: Check out the near-identical U.S. trailer below:
In STARRED UP, Jack O’Connell gives a star-making performance as 19 year-old Eric Love, a violent and troubled teenager making the difficult transition from a young offenders’ institute to adult prison. He seems to be destined for a life behind bars, but the prison’s unconventional therapist (Rupert Friend) is determined to help Eric find a way through, assisted by of one of the prison’s longest serving inmates — Neville (Ben Mendelsohn) — who just happens to be Eric’s father.
Starred Up hits U.K. theaters on on March 21st and U.S. theaters on August 29th.