The better-than-average vibe is heightened and perpetuated by Coster-Waldaus terrific turn as the movies complicated central character...

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 28, 2022

It's a sinister watch and doesn't play out like you initially think, but the surprises and performance from Coster-Waldau helps the film stick its landing.

Full Review | Nov 10, 2020

While prison movies and films about criminals are hardly unique, the combination of the two in this way, showing the connection and how one never really leaves prison behind, in an interesting and surprisingly emotional journey.

Full Review | May 12, 2020

It's an intriguing peer into prison life and [Nikolaj] Coster-Waldau pours himself into the role, but the back and forth of the narrative in time and other twists drag down the provocative character study.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | May 11, 2020

A grim, well-acted drama about the corrupting power of prison gangs and the way decent people are institutionalized.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 13, 2020

An intricately tapestried character study of a way of life as well as an individual... [Ric] Waugh weaves the past and the present into a calculating and riveting thriller that not only keeps the characters on their toes, but the audience as well.

Full Review | Oct 30, 2019

Waugh offers a poignant, if not violent and disturbing account of how normal people go from normal to indoctrinated into a gang's lifestyle.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | May 5, 2019

Violent prison tale has blood and language.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 26, 2018

One of the most powerful, and interesting prison stories since American History X, Shot Caller is eye-opening and brutal. The story shines a huge spotlight on the 'how to make a criminal' nature of modern prisons.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 23, 2018

The rise of the incarceration industry has seen a spike in films about burly men alternately bonding with/beating each other up behind bars, and Ric Roman Waugh's Shot Caller is a pitiless yet unusually forthright genre entry.

Full Review | Feb 20, 2018

I don't mind that it's all improbable, but it's also quite dull.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 18, 2017

Stuntman-turned- film-maker Ric Roman Waugh, who writes and directs, keeps the whole thing on track in a way that would impress even more if he hadn't already had one go at the subject with the 2008 film Felon.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 18, 2017

By emphasising the characters' thuggishness over anything more nuanced, filmmaker Ric Roman Waugh seems to betray the fact that he thinks brutality is inherently entertaining.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Dec 18, 2017

It seems to glamourise the violence within the prison system, falling back on lazy stereotypes and suggesting that shivving your way to the top can be excused if you have a noble aim.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 17, 2017

On many levels, Shot Caller makes no sense whatsoever.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 15, 2017

Waugh's film conveys the kill-or-be-killed rationalism that inexorably draws Coster-Waldau's 'Money' towards a life of violent crime.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 15, 2017

If you like your thrillers grim and violent, then Shot Caller certainly delivers the goods.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 15, 2017

The film is aiming for tough edges, but it's essentially very vanilla.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 15, 2017

My expectations here were tepid. But Shot Caller turns out to be a really taut, tense, prison-set thriller, a little like Jacques Audiard's A Prophet and longform television such as Breaking Bad or The Wire.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 14, 2017

While the set-up is great, it's the pay-off that lets this title down, growing somewhat convoluted as we progress, and moving too far away from the endearing simplicity that helped to set the scene.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 14, 2017