Tribeca 2025 Review: INSIDE, Harsh, Edgy Prison Drama with Stellar Performances

Prison drama seems to be a genre that most directors, given a choice, wouldn’t set out to do as their debut.

While a limited, confined space surely has its benefits, it is also just that – limited. It sets up the physical boundaries that stand in the way of some narrative opportunities and stylistic intricacies (unless it’s something akin to Elle Cosimano’s novel Holding Smoke, where a young hero could mentally teleport outside the prison walls). Yet sometimes we do get daring feature debuts that not only tackle the prison genre but also end up overturning many of its conventions.

This is the case of Inside, not a particularly unique title, but definitely a debut feature crafted in an original way by Australian director Charles Williams, which had its premiere at the 2025 Tribeca Festival. The story revolves around three inmates who are at very different stages in their respective journeys when it comes to the concepts of atonement and freedom. In fact, the youngest of them, a recently transferred newcomer, Mel (Vincent Miller, for whom it is also a debut), doesn’t believe any of them deserve to attempt redemption, and is acting out accordingly.

He is put in the same cell as an old-timer, Warren (Guy Pearce), who is about to get his parole in a few days and reunite with his estranged son, but first, he needs to settle a few scores inside. Warren sees Mel as a possible solution to his problems when he realizes that the younger man is willing to take a sizable bounty on the life of another prisoner, Shepard (a barely recognizable Cosmo Jarvis), serving a life sentence and leading religious sermons at the prison’s chapel.

Even though Inside, which Williams not only directed but also wrote after years of extensive research on the subject matter, doesn’t care much for common prison drama tropes, there are still some bits of recognizable dynamics in it. The closest reference would probably be David Mackenzie’s Starred Up, a 2013 British prison drama in which Jack O'Connell played a recent transplant from a juvenile to adult prison, who got stuck between his father, also serving his time there, and another inmate wishing to become his mentor.

The quasi-parental relationship Mel forms with both Warren and Shepard in Williams’ film is a little reminiscent of that, as is its raw, hyper-realistic style, where the authors don’t shy away from the more unpleasant aspects of prison experiences – and neither does the cast. Like its title suggests, Inside has a tricky relationship with the outside world, which obviously exists and even appears in brief and mostly mysterious flashbacks about the main characters’ pasts and a few other scenes, but doesn’t seem to matter all that much in this story.

The editing, cinematography, and coloring help to create a sense of being in a separate world, where it doesn’t make a difference what the characters are in for (despite the flashbacks and some bits of conversations, we don’t fully get those stories). It’s not as if the authors, like Mel, don’t believe in the possibility of redemption, but that’s just not the reality they’re showing.

In this one, there might be no rhyme or reason as to why certain things happen, and freedom isn’t so much about defying the bounds of physical walls but making a conscious choice to knock down some of the mental ones.

The film enjoyed its North American premiere at Tribeca Festival 2025. Visit the film's official page for more information.