Reel News

By Vasiliy Zaitsev

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When youthful drug dealer Ron Decker (Edward Furlong) finds himself behind prison walls, he quickly realizes that he's out of his league in a society of predators. Decker is marked to be, um, indoctrinated into the ways of prison life, when a lifer named Earl Copen (Willem DaFoe) offers him protection.

Friendship with Copen, Decker discovers, keeps him safe from the other prisoners, but it lands him in the crosshairs of prison administrators -- as Copen is the ringleader of one of the meanest cliques in the joint.

Thus begins "The Animal Factory" (R), which is one of the best movies your humble reviewer has seen in a long, long time. Director Steve Buscemi, who you may remember as Mr. Pink from "Reservoir Dogs," offers a movie so visually rich, afterwards you may feel like you've just finished a five-course meal.

But it's usually a clear sign that a movie will be decent when one of the screenwriters had to sell his blood so he could afford the postage to mail his first manuscript to publishers. This was the case for Edward Bunker, author of the novel by the same name and co-author of the screenplay. Bunker, who you may remember as Mr. Blue from "Reservoir Dogs," spent 30-some years of his life behind bars, so it's no surprise where "The Animal Factory" gets its insider's edge.

About the author: Vasiliy Zaitsev is looking forward to the upcoming movie "Enemy at the Gates," which features his namesake.