Stranger Inside

Well, sometimes life itself doesn't make perfect sense. This movie was so awesome. Heart touching. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. The love scenes were like, so in tune.

They weren't explicit, they used just enough for the imagination. But the ending, my heart almost skipped a beat. I guessed a lot of what was going to happen but never in a million years, did I expect all of that. You are in for a real treat. I felt the pain. Boy did I. That's all I am going to say for I will probably let it blurt out the ending if I don't stop now. Please watch. I watched with my mother. Mother and Daughter. And it was very heart touching.

Nothing to sing about here in a very mundane TV movie prison drama. It seems like it is confused about if it should shock its audience or to tug on the heart strings, it does neither and remains a curiosity piece only for fans of the acting family Phoenix, as here we get Rain Phoenix doing OK whilst looking exactly like Joaquin. Some initial promise with the characters is never fully realised, and when the violence does come it seems almost as if they felt they needed to up the anti to keep the viewer interested. Not a total waste of time but not one to reccie with confidence to fans of prison dramas.

4/10

The movie "Stranger Inside" was an astonishing movie. Although it had some unclean scenes and scenes that you really didn't feel that was necessary, the writer is exposing what's really going on out in the real world. Scenes from this movie was not fictional, but nonfictional. A lot of us don't like to face the fact that there are lesbians, homosexuals, or however they are labeled out there doing these things and not only in correctional facilities. The writer also exposes why the character "Treasure" came out the way she did. It was because of the absence of her mother and that's some of the problems also, there are absent mothers and fathers that are not with their children and it gives them the idea to do the things they do. I can't go into details, but I honestly think that is an award winning movie that should be exposed to society and let them know what's really going on.

The director of this film was my professor for a beginning film class at Temple University this past semester. She is a very intelligent and funny woman, and at the end of the semester, we watched this film. Grades are in already, so don't think I'm posting this to brownnose, but I really enjoyed seeing Ms. Dunye's film.

The "women-in-prison" plot is not an area covered very often in film, and when it is touched on, there are too many stereotypes to keep count of. Although there is some predictability in this film, the subject matter and themes were looked at from a very fresh angle. Ms. Dunye often talked to our class about incorporating reality and fiction together so that the two would blend and the line separating them would be blurry. This is exactly what she's accomplished in this film. The storyline is believable and the viewer becomes sympathetic to the characters; even though they are convicted prisoners, we look past the bars and into the minds of these women. We may not understand their motives, but we appreciate their actions. I'd recommend this film to anyone, especially those who've never seen a movie covering this subject area before.

4/5

There are quite a few things wrong with this film. Let's see:

We don't like any character too much. The main character's quiet, yet aggressive, manner hinders the character development. The duality of love among prison "families" and prison violence is not totally believable. At times, the movie actually seems slow moving.

This movie is very similar to some other prison movie in every aspect except the ending.

I sure didn't expect the ending yet now it makes perfect sense. All by itself the ending makes the movie worth watching.