Brawl in Cell Block 99
(2017)
(SPOILERS) Brawl in
Cell Block 99 is most definitely cut from the same cloth as writer-director-co-composer
Craig S Zahler’s previous flick Bone
Tomahawk: an inexorable, slow-burn suspenser that works equally well as a
character drama. That is, when it isn’t revelling in sporadic bursts of ultraviolence,
including a finale in a close-quartered pit of hell. If there’s nothing quite
as repellent as that scene in Bone Tomahawk, it’s never less than
evident that this self-professed “child
of Fangoria” loves his grue. He also appears to have a predilection for, to
use his own phraseology, less politically correct content.
With Bone Tomahawk,
one might have charitably put Zahler’s choices down to making a monster movie
that incidentally, albeit insensitively, incorporated Native American cannibal
killer antagonists with a particularly savage modus operandi for treating their
house guests. But pile on Brawl in Cell
Block 99, and then that Zahler’s forthcoming Dragged Across Concrete co-stars Mel Gibson (and reteams both with
Vince Vaughn), and you begin to suspect he’s either actively courting
controversy (although he doesn’t seem particularly keen on broaching the
subject in interviews) or brandishes certain latent, unsavoury tendencies.
In Brawl in Cell Block
99, Vaughn’s (presumably) former white supremacist Bradley Thomas is
running drugs for buddy Gil (Marc Blucas), a conscious decision designed to
improve his and pregnant girlfriend Lauren’s (Jennifer Carpenter) quality of
life. When a pickup turns sour and he’s sent to the slammer, Bradley finds
himself squaring up against a string of minorities (or just plain old foreigners,
when it comes to Udo Keir’s Placid Man intermediary), most particularly in the
form of a Latino drug gang who are both incompetent (its foot soldiers) and so
thoroughly, horrendously evil (its leader) that they whistle up a horrifying method
– courtesy of Zahler’s festering imagination – of punishing Bradley and his
wife if he doesn’t do exactly what they say. Which is ostensibly to kill one
Christopher Bridge, ensconced in Cell Block 99 of a maximum-security prison.
One might simply see Bradley’s “Don’t call me a foreigner. Last time I checked, the colours of the flag
weren’t red, white and burrito” as a means to start a fight, which it is
(his ascent – or descent, depending how you look at it – to his chosen
destination, having started in an entirely different, relatively amenable prison, is
remarkably smooth and efficient), but it comes after an earlier slight to his
African-American guard (“Pretend you’re
talking to God”: “He doesn’t smell
like nachos”), the establishing of buddy Gil’s prejudice (he’s partial to
using the n-word: “Don’t think someone
like you can say that word anyway polite” observes Bradley), although
clearly coded as a good guy (he blows away Kier at the end, while Lauren, who
has been the damsel in distress up to this point, is allowed the token gesture
of taking out the evil Korean abortionist), and the emphasis on patriotism
(it’s the act of a patriot to save good, decent, patriotic cops from a couple
of crazed, trigger-happy Mexicans). At very least, Zahler’s choices seem to be the
choices of one wilfully, brazenly wading through a minefield (even to the extent
of the first scene, in which Zahler’s at pains to emphasise Bradley’s good
relationship with a black co-worker, evidently coded to pre-empt later
accusations of racism, the kind of choice the director was saying he wasn’t making).
But then, provoking seems to be his thing. Zahler takes the
time to map out Bradley’s inner rage and turmoil. It’s 45 minutes before he’s
locked up, but one of the strongest scenes comes right at the start, as
discovering his wife’s infidelity, he takes out his rage on her car before
proceeding into the house and composedly – but tensely – discussing with her
where they go from there (given the manner in which he essentially controls
her, right through her pregnancy, it’s a wonder she didn’t take the opportunity
to make a run for it, but perhaps she’s too cowed into emotional dependency by
that point; it’s hard to tell, as Zahler offers her little autonomy). The scene
informs Bradley’s behaviour from there on, taking his anger out on inanimate
objects while being contained and restrained when necessary (most notably when he
first receives a visit from gang rep the Placid Man).
The slow-but-sure unfolding comes into play with just about
everything from the induction processes to prison tours. We acclimatise to each
new environment with Bradley, and the sudden contrasts of action are thus all
the more effective. Zahler refers to the violence in Brawl in Cell Block 99 as cathartic, but while I recognise that
response, his particular brand of excess is to grisly to lose oneself in. Call
it grindhouse, or exploitation; there’s a gleefulness to the cartoonish
bone-snapping, skull-stamping, eye-gouging mayhem that doesn’t really do it for
me. Zahler’s movies are exercises in overkill in this respect, long fuses
building to periodic splintering and splattering and eviscerating.
Having said that, Zahler’s evidently an expert when it comes
to structure and pacing and tone, and he reels you in as ominously and
inexorably as he did with Bone Tomahawk.
He’s ably supported by Vaughn, who may have entirely failed to carry off his
sergeant in Hacksaw Ridge but
entirely convinces as stomping, punching, kicking, pulverising unstoppable
force. Carpenter’s strong in a part whose backend is rather thankless, while
Don Johnson’s Warden Tuggs may not be as great a genre comeback as Jim Bob in Cold in July, but gives him an
opportunity to flex the flinty authoritarian muscles. The score is first rate too,
the retro electronica adding to the sense of a late ‘70s Carpenter movie (not
that Carpenter really went in for this kind of gore, though). Zahler’s evidently
a highly talented writer and director and musician, but I wonder at what point
his less refined sensibilities – if that’s all they are – will bite him in his
red, white and backside.
Agree? Disagree? Mildly or vehemently? Let me know in the comments below.
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