Inside [Tribeca Festival Review]
Writer/director Charles Williams makes an impressive feature debut with the drama Inside, which screened in the Spotlight Narrative category of the 2025 Tribeca Festival. He spent four years researching prison life, talking to guards and inmates alike. That commitment pays off, because this is one of the most authentic feeling prison movies I’ve ever seen.
Mel Blight (impressively played by newcomer Vincent Miller) believes jail is simply meant to be a part of his life. His father has long been incarcerated and he’s now in the slammer after a stint in juvenile detention. Because of his young age, an older inmate named Warren Murfett (Guy Pearce) is asked to take Mel under his wing. Self-styled preacher Mark Shephard (Cosmo Jarvis), who’s in for life, also takes a shine to the kid, although not for any of the right reasons. He has a bounty on his head, one that Warren intends to claim, provided he can enlist Mel to help.
Inside focuses heavily on the grind of prison life – the monotony of every day being the same, the boredom-driven efforts at finding recreation, the petty squabbles between prisoners, etc. The movie has a raw, gritty vibe that potently conveys the grimness of incarceration. Williams uses it to reinforce Mel’s arc, which is that his mindset tells him jail is unavoidable. He thinks that he doesn’t deserve anything better, that this is his destiny. Negative self-talk of that sort makes him vulnerable to people like Shephard, and nervous tension is built from wondering whether he’ll be able to envision a different future.
Mel’s journey reflects meaningfully off Warren’s. The elder prisoner is getting closer to parole, and he hopes to rebuild the relationship with his estranged adult son. The mentality of long-term incarceration hasn’t left him, though, which is why he’s eager to collect that bounty, despite the fact that it could jeopardize his release. Pearce is excellent in the role, capturing the sadness of Warren realizing how much his life has been detoured. The actor will break your heart during a scene where the character has an unsupervised visit with his son.
In between Pearce and Miller is Cosmo Jarvis, whose turn is deeply disturbing on multiple levels, not the least of them being the guy's tendency to paint himself as holy despite possessing a clearly malicious core. The movie contains a shocking scene that reveals the depth of Shephard’s depravity. With his weird gravelly voice and intimidating body language, he’s a real-life monster, and Jarvis portrays him unforgettably.
Many films set in prison deal with people trying to survive and eventually begin a new life outside the walls. Inside takes that to a more internal level, suggesting that inmates must figure out how to not let their illegal actions define them if they even want to start imagining a better tomorrow. I didn’t expect this emotionally harrowing movie to end on a note of hope, yet it somehow does, and that gives it undeniable impact.
© 2025 Mike McGranaghan