Boys Behind Bars: The Complete Collection

By: Amos Lassen

"Boys Behind Bars"

The Real Thing

Amos Lassen

Some of you might have read my reviews of Wade Radford's stories and poetry and saw that I believe that he is an up and coming writer to watch. Radford is also an actor who appears in the new film, "Boys Behind Bars", a throwback to the old prison grind house movies. He is Darrell, a prison "bitch" who has been well trained and looks forward to a night getting high on that have been smuggled in. However, a sudden riot takes place on the floors above him. Those responsible for the riot must be separated and three inmates are taken into Darrell's cell. Darrell is a bit of a jokester and the flirts with Seth (Tama Phethean) and Lanks (Gavin Jackson) his new cellmates. But then a new boy (James Whitehurst) is put in the cell, the three guys already there see him as prey and there begins a series of disgusting and offensive activities. We see the savagery of the boys who are determined to abuse, degrade and insult each other all through the night.

There is a bit of irony here in that the actors are all cute in appearance but savage in behavior. The film itself is a series of long takes filmed in a prison cell. Radford's character is a nasty and vile person (something I do not see in my correspondence with him). Even more than that, none of the characters are the kinds of people that we would want as friends. They comes across as disturbed and inarticulate except for foul language. The film also imparts a sense of claustrophobia since it is entirely set in the cell. It is just plain down and dirty and reinforces what we know about prison life. Director Jason Impey decided to concentrate more on the characters than he did in "Sex, Lies and Depravity" (also with Radford. It seems to me that both and Radford are evolving into serious movie people and while this is not my kind of film, it is interesting.