Dir: Cal McCau, UK, 2025, 90 mins.
Cast: David Jonsson, Tom Blyth
Review by Matthew Morlai Kamara
We’ve seen Tom Blyth and David Jonsson in equally stressful roles that have already redefined their impressive trajectories. Blyth in both The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023) and his role in Plainclothes (2025), and Jonsson, celebrated for his performance in Rye Lane (2023), his role as an android in Alien: Romulus (2024), and his star turn in The Long Walk (2025). With this film both actors prove that they can plunge into totally different roles, showcasing their astonishing acting range.
Blyth transforms into an utterly unhinged, menacing force, a truly unsettling revelation, while conversely, Jonsson delivers a masterclass in quiet despair, embodying a timid addict yearning for connection. Dee’s volatile presence starkly contrasts with Taylor’s vulnerability, creating a lopsided power dynamic that grips you, evoking profound pity. This is character work of the highest calibre.
And it isn’t a sanitized glimpse; it’s a full-throttle immersion into its unforgiving world. The 90 minute runtime is a relentless assault, a sensation amplified by the cinematography. Tight prison cells are captured through a barrage of close-ups and handheld camerawork, intensifying the trapped feeling. The creative use of interspersed smartphone footage adds a defiant, visceral pulse of authenticity.
Wasteman does a great job of making us ask tough questions about rehabilitation – does it even work or do people just slide backwards? It’s a gripping, unflinching film that was one of the most intense screenings I had the pleasure of reviewing at last year’s London Film Festival, giving as it does a truly close and personal look at the brutal and nerve-racking life in prison life.
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