Brawl in Cell Block 99 (2017)

Directed by S. Craig Zahler. Starring Vince Vaughn, Jennifer Carpenter, Don Johnson, Marc Blucas, Dion Mucciacito, Udo Kier, Mustafa Shakir, Willie C. Carpenter, Thomas Guiry. [R]

Combination of gritty, docudrama-level crime film and bone-crunching, grindhouse-level prison flick sends its shorn-scalped drug transporter “hero” (Vaughn) on an odyssey of pain, both the receiving side and the delivering side. Vaughn’s stiff, purposeful demeanor cages explosive violence, a million miles from the motormouth sleazoid charmer he typically essays (shtick that seems to become lazier with each passing year, so he’s practically revelatory here, even though he’s proven his chops in the past); his brutal character does it for the love and protection of his wife and unborn child, so it’s still easy to root for him. Features a methodical pace and the detailed, authentic minutiae one doesn’t normally get from these sorts of punishing thrillers, and by taking its time getting to the bloodletting, writer/director Zahler develops a tough, raspy atmosphere that really sells the exploitation-style shenanigans, replete with a sadistic prison warden (Johnson), dungeon-like trappings, explosive meat-slab thuds accompanying every blow, and more bone fractures than one would likely find in an entire rugby season. Zahler also wrote the R&B songs on the soundtrack (with Jeff Herriott), performed by the likes of Butch Tavares and the O’Jays.

80/100