It's been so long... so excruciatingly long... I haven't gotten to write an overwhelmingly positive review in such a heartbreakingly long time. But Felon has finally afforded me that opportunity.

Lately I've felt like Wade Porter, played majestically by Stephen Dorff; stuck in a horrid and barren landscape of tedium. Looking longingly towards a point on the horizon that will save me from this wretchedness, but then that point comes and it turns out that only more monotony is in store for me. I sack up and accept my fate, as I know there is nothing I can do, but that doesn't keep my soul from being crushed and my aspirations from shattering. Hollywood is like Lt. Jackson (Harold Perrineau) and his prison security guard gang, or rather, car. They want me miserable. They put me in a demographic cage and spoon feed me awful stories sweetened through a heavy disguise of special effects sauce.

But along comes a savior from a very unsuspected place. Director and writer Ric Roman Waugh has created a prison drama masterpiece with only his second outing in filmmaking and after 24 years of working as a stunt man. Even more impressive, he got Val Kilmer to play. That name alone causes me to watch a film. Regardless of what it is, if Val is in it, I will watch it. And he is everything a master actor should be in this film. You can barely recognize that it is him through his large scruffy go-t and prison-hardened eyes, but his magic is undeniable.

I can't recall ever seeing Stephen Dorff in a major role before, but he is quite fantastic. He plays a husband and father who in protecting his family from a break-in commits a felony and is sentenced to hard time. Through a series of misfortunes, he ends up in the worst part of the prison and under the rule of some shady characters.

The guards, the inmates and Porter's family are all presented in such stunning clarity. With very few words, it is clear what each persons motivations are. Very few films achieve even a semblance of comprehensibility between the characters and the viewers nowadays. I was also impressed by just how stellar the film looked. It wasn't treated with coloring chemicals or lit with a never ending barage of colored gels. Every scene was as natural and gritty as it should have been. And Waugh's prison is a surprisingly colorful place. But an attempt at orchestrating the mood through color choices, whether that be costume or lighting or post treatments, would have greatly altered the very real feeling that the film conveys. When filming outside the prison, Waugh does film many scenes at sun-up or sundown (magic hour, as they say), and this natural beauty helps greatly to contrast the concrete walls and dead feelings of the prison.

The beginning is outstanding. The middle is enthralling. The climax is beautiful. And the ending is superb.
See this film!