Animal Factory (2000)
Average Rating: 6.8/10
Reviews Counted: 33
Fresh: 27 | Rotten: 6
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 7.1/10
Critic Reviews: 6
Fresh: 5 | Rotten: 1
No consensus yet.
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Average Rating: 3.2/5
User Ratings: 9,080
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Movie Info
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
Oct 20, 2000 Wide
Jan 9, 2001
Silver Nitrate
Watch It Now
Cast
-
Willem Dafoe
Earl Copen -
Edward Furlong
Ron Decker -
Seymour Cassel
Lt. Seeman -
Mickey Rourke
Jan the Actress -
Steve Buscemi
A.R. Hosspack -
Tom Arnold
Buck Rowan -
John Heard
James Decker -
Danny Trejo
Vito -
Edward Bunker
Buzzard -
Michael Buscemi
Mr. Herrell -
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All Critics (38) | Top Critics (8) | Fresh (28) | Rotten (6) | DVD (9)
You come away with the sense that you should have come to care (or at least to know) more about its central characters than you do.
Top CriticIt'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.
The bleakness and myriad cruelties of the prison system are telegraphed with a graceful touch.
A picture about adapting one's instincts, and Mr. Buscemi's deftness works well in this context.
The opaque performances offer little in the way of shading.
"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.
What it does lack is a performance by Furlong that's the equal of Dafoe's.
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
Prison flick from ex-con screenwriter is raw and realistic, with powerful acting.
A scary and unflinching look at prison life.
Audience Reviews for Animal Factory
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Steve Buscemi proves here the extent of his talent, both as a screen presence and as a fine director. Willem Dafoe and Edward Furlong share great chemistry and Danny Trejo brings in a few laughs to the more realistic and gritty prison drama than that of The Shawshank Redemption. It isn't deserving of it's forgotten film status, it has brilliant performances and it is consitently interesting. Dafoe should have been nominated for an Oscar for his performance which was even more powerful than Robbins or Freeman in Shawshank. A powerful and realistic film about having to adapt to your surroundings.