Grindhouse: "Brawl in Cell Block 99" Review

"A former boxer-turned-drug runner lands in a prison battleground after a deal becomes deadly."

Written & Directed by: S. Craig Zahler
Starring: Vince Vaughn 

                 Jennifer Carpenter

                 Dion Mucciacito

                 Marc Blucas 

                 Udo Kier 

                 Don Johnson 

Ten years ago Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez teamed up to release their Grindhouse double-feature. It was met with an excited response but a tepid box office return but many praised the two for creating something that resembled the "trash cinema" of their youth. I've always had a complicated relationship with the two films, especially Rodriguez's Planet Terror. In recent years, his effort has been lauded as the better and more accurate of the two films but it was Tarantino's Death Proof that's always stuck with me. People complain that it's too slow and filled with too much dialogue but if you've ever seen the movies that these two films were referencing, then you'd completely understand why Tarantino made what he made. Films like Two Lane Black Top, The Driver and Vanishing Point are all slow burn films filled with long moments without any action. I've always felt that Death Proof was the superior of the two even though neither really captured the magic of Grindhouse cinema. Why the long preamble? Because S. Craig Zahler's sophomore feature Brawl in Cell Block 99 captures that magic and then some. If you stuck this in a triple feature with Walter Hill's Hard Times and Richard Rush's Savage 7, you would be hard pressed to say it didn't belong. It's a lean, mean, ultra-violent pulp masterpiece.

Zahler's debut feature, Bone Tomahawk, was a similarly violent, gory western that immediately put him on the map. His proficiency behind the camera was hard to deny but it was his unwavering dedication to showing hardcore violence that made him interesting. Violence is something that we've all unfortunately become accustomed to. With the carnage we witness in the real world every day coupled with films like the Marvel movies, where Captain America essentially massacres hired goons all day, it's become harder for films to shock us. The difference between something like action or superhero movie and Zahler's work, is that the former shows us indiscriminate violence where the recipients generally don't have a face. Captain America is beating the shit out of goon after goon and you just kind of yawn because you're basically watching a video game. The violence that Zahler is depicting is more raw, more personal. He gets you up close and in the face of some really nasty stuff. It's disturbing but so hard to look away from because it's almost poetic. Every bone crunch, every disgusting squelch as fists pound meat, you're entranced and repulsed all at once. The violence becomes more meaningful when it's used judiciously. Brawl in Cell Block 99 is the pinnacle of this. I've seen plenty of gory, violent films in recent years but nothing quite like this. It's because of that aforementioned judiciousness that the violence really sticks with you and ends up having more of an impact.   

We open with Vince Vaughn as Bradley (don't call him Brad) losing his job at an auto body shop. He comes home to find his wife already home. He approaches her and she immediately confesses that she's cheating on him. What's immediately interesting to me is how Bradley handles this revelation, he destroys her car with his bare hands. We're shown how violent he is but he never considers hitting her. A more cliched version of this would probably lean that way. That's not to laud Bradley or the film by any means. What he's doing is 100% abusive but it shows that this guy has some moral compass. A shitty and complicated moral compass, but one nonetheless. Small victories, I guess. 

Fast forward and their marriage seems to be back on solid-ish ground. His wife, played with soul by Jennifer Carpenter, is pregnant. Bradley is running drugs but after a deal goes south he finds himself in prison. The circumstances of said deal going south lead to his wife being kidnapped. Her release is dependent on Bradley fighting his way into a maximum security prison and into the dreaded Cell Block 99.

Cell Block 99 is a pretty good case study on the phrase "Depiction is Not Endorsement." As a pretty hard line liberal, I have a tough time seeing films that depict things like this. However, I think many people like me see these things and immediately think the film itself is problematic when it's only depicting something awful. I think the line is crossed when the message of the film is what it's showing or when the film is asking you to root for someone doing awful things. This doesn't do that. Bradley is a bad person. He's violent, intimidating and inherently sexist toward his wife because of those things. It doesn't matter that what he's doing in this film is for his wife, it's clear to us that Bradley is a bad person and that you shouldn't cheer for him. He's doing what he has to do to keep his wife alive but the film never makes him a hero. 

Another potential problem with the film is the dead tired trope of "Woman in Peril=Man's Quest to Save Her." I spoke at length in my Blade Runner 2049 review about how the women are used in that film and how tired it was. I feel the exact same way here. It's really the only reason I'd dock any points from this. Well, and from the film not doing quite enough to justify its length. This could have been a solid 90 minutes.  99% of revenge films are male fantasies about saving a woman in peril. I'm not saying that it makes the film itself bad at all, it's excellent, but it is something that I find myself rolling my eyes at the more I see it. The only points I'll give the film where that's concerned (and again, it's only because it's the bare minimum) is that Zahler doesn't show Carpenter being violated. We see her kidnapped and at various points, we see her tied up. The violence is concentrated on the people that deserve it. Not that it makes the film's slight laziness in setup any better but again, small victories. 

Now that my social justice gripes are out of the way, the film itself is pretty much a masterpiece on a technical level. I keep going back to that word, "judicious" but the violence is paced so perfectly. This plays almost like a video game reverse in that Bradley has to fight his way to the bottom instead of the top. His descent into hell starts small, with one fight but slowly escalates into mini-brawls and (no spoilers but it's in the title) a full on brawl to end all brawls. Zahler puts you through the paces, giving you time to breathe but less and less of it each time. By the end, you're gripping your seat in horror at what you're seeing but you can't look away. Every punch hurts. Every crunch of a skull (there are multiple) rattles around in your brain long after the film. There's a scene involving one such skull that I won't go into but is easily the most disturbing death I've seen in years. You'll know exactly what I'm talking about when you see it. The point is, Zahler can direct the hell out of a movie. His scene placement is perfect, his choice in edits are spot on. From a filmmaking standpoint, it's perfect. Not a single frame is wasted and each shot is gorgeous. 

Vince Vaughn is giving his career best performance. His deadened face is betrayed by eyes that have seen more than anyone ever should. He has a haunted grace to his movements. He's a battering ram but with purpose. Vaughn speaks in a stilted, southern drawl but every sentence he utters means something. After twenty-plus years in the business, Vaughn may have found his calling as a silent, pulpy action star. He would be right at home with Charles Bronson and Robert Forester. Jennifer Carpenter is equally great here. She too portrays a sadness of a life not lived well. She isn't given too much to do but she makes the most of what she has. Zahler brilliantly populates his film with oddball character actors like Udo Kier and Don Johnson. The former is his usual slimy self and the latter exudes a menacing cool that he's slid into well in recent years. 

The true triumph of Cell Block 99 is the production design. Bradley's house is a lived-in, Middle America home complete with wood paneling and a ratty couch. His first prison cell is a sterile, blue and silver abode that almost looks like a vacation home once you see the Supermax he's sent to. That place is an absolute hellhole. Guards dressed like SS immediately stand out. Dirty brown walls with barely a light to find your way. The floor of Bradley's cell is a sea of glass shards. Just watching this film had me getting myself tested for diseases because Cell Block 99 is disgusting. No two sets look the same and Zahler has a knack for creating a world that is equal parts real and fantastical. You don't want to believe that a prison could exist that looks like this but you know in the back of your mind that there are and that's the scariest proposition of all.

Brawl in Cell Block 99 is a brutal exercise in violence that only lets up long enough for you to get in half a breath before you descend further into hell. Zahler announced himself as director to watch with Bone Tomahawk but his second feature is a deafening bone crunch letting Hollywood know that he's here to stay. And that he's not here to fuck around. With a lean script, brilliant fight choreography and hyper-violent gore, Brawl in Cell Block 99 is paced like a Walter Hill film, shot like a Peckinpah with the gore of an Eli Roth (don't worry though, that's about the only compliment I can give Roth). Despite a few script hiccups, this succeeds in delivering one of the few must-watch films of the year. It's one thing describe a film like this but it's another to watch it. This is shock value in the best sense of the word. You should be shocked by this. You should be repulsed by it. These are bad men doing bad things as portrayed by a filmmaker at the top of his game. Let's just hope he continues "Depicting" and not "Endorsing" because his next film, Dragged Across Concrete, deals with with police brutality and well, we all know where that could go way off the rails. For now though? Let's revel in the true heir apparent to the sparse, violent films of the 70s and his masterpiece.

VERDICT

S. Craig Zahler's second feature is a masterclass in violence, suspense and how to pace a movie. It does just enough to skirt its slightly problematic issues to transcend into a lean and angry pitbull of a film. Vince Vaughn gives a career-best performance and one of the best of the year. You'll cringe through the fights but you'll never be able to look away. It's not a perfect film, it veers a little on the long side but man, is it effective. There isn't a director working who could pull this off better than Zahler. 

8.25/10