Actor-turned-director Steve Buscemi follows up on his restrained 1996 directorial debut Trees Lounge (1996) with this gritty, understated prison drama. Twenty-one-year-old suburban kid Ron (Edward Furlong) got busted for dealing drugs and slapped with an especially severe jail sentence. Though he tries to keep a low profile at prison, he soon attracts unsavory attention of various sex-starved goons. Fearing rape, he appeals directly to Earl (Willem Dafoe), a fellow prisoner who runs the place
like it was his own fiefdom. Though Ron's request is strictly against this rarified culture's baroque rules, Earl takes him under his wing, and soon he is a part of Earl's inner circle. Slowly Ron learns the breadth of Earl's power, ranging from the easy procurement of drugs to the violent dispatching of a prisoner who gets out of line. As Ron grows increasingly indebted to Earl, he wonders how he is expected to repay him. Yet Earl, who shows his fondness for the lad with fatherly tenderness counterbalanced with repressed yearning, never pushes his advantage. Other members of the cast include Tom Arnold as a salivating hill-billy and an almost unrecognizable Mickey Rourke as a cross-dressing prison queen. This film was highly praised at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
It's the relationship between Willem Dafoe, as Earl, the hard-time veteran, and Edward Furlong, as Ron, the new boy he takes under his wing, that makes the film so compelling.
"Animal Factory" shows in unflinching scenes of stabbings, race riots, drug use, attempted rape, and constantly boiling chaotic violence, how hardened criminals are formed by incessant molding inside American penitentiaries.
We may have seen this type of Animal before, but Furlong and Dafoe's work -- and Buscemi's honest, caring touch with these fringe-dwellers -- make it seem fresh.
there are two reasons to fast-forward this offering when it's released on video: (1) Mickey Rourke's over-the-top bejeweled drag queen and (2) Tom Arnold's truly rotten performance as a baddy who has the hots for boy-buns. Roseanne's finally gotten her re
Directed by Steve Buscemi, Animal Factory is a tough prison drama following young convict Edward Furlong as he is taught the ropes of life behind bars by institutionalized inmate Willem Dafoe. Its lack of either melodrama or sensationalism is admirable, and solid writing and good performances for the most part make
this a worthy and interesting window onto the ins and outs of prison existence. Willem Dafoe and Danny Trejo are completely believable as the two hard bitten convicts who take Furlong under their wing. The message is that imprisonment may just mean that otherwise good kids who have made a mistake will be transformed into career criminals if they are surrounded by men who will do nothing but take advantage of them or teach them nothing but the "tricks of the trade". Unfortunately the weak link in the performance chain is Furlong himself, who doesn't really capture the transformation of character to get the point across. I also felt the ending was a little bit of anti-climax, but as a whole it's one of the better prison films I've seen and well worth a look for its more realistic approach .
July 12, 2007
xGary Xx
Super Reviewer
Steve Buscemi isn't just a pretty face ;o) He?s a brilliant director! Great cast, great film!
No quotes approved yet for Animal Factory. Logged in users can submit quotes.
Submit a Quote from 'Animal Factory'
A quote can be a single line from one character or a memorable dialog between several characters. Please make your quotes accurate. Quotes will be submitted for approval by the RT staff.
Example:
Luke: Alright. I'll give it a try. Yoda: No. Try not. Do or do not. There is no try.
Top Critic
