There is something inherently interesting and thought-provoking from Charles Williams’s first time feature, Inside (not to be confused with the Willem Dafoe movie from a few years back), but the longform execution of this seems to be where it slightly falls short. While Williams’s previous experience has been in shorts (the longest of which being 20 minutes), this 104-minute feature feels like it would’ve benefited from a tighter, shorter, more confined time and was something that left less exposition and more intensity for our characters. There isn’t anything inherently wrong, but the performances aren’t as tight as they could be and the story lacks that extra something to captivate the audience. Overall, Inside doesn’t deliver on all fronts but is far from a prison sentence of viewing proportions.
L-R: Guy Pearce as Warren Murfett and Vincent Miller as Mel Blight in INSIDE. Photo courtesy of Quiver Distribution/Tribeca Film Festival.
Mel (Vincent Miller) is in prison and part of his program during his juvie sentence is to write a letter to his victim. He callously declares that he essentially cannot partake in this exercise as his victim is in fact dead — it’s a “you need to hear it or miss it” moment as it’s so casually dropped in the conversation that it almost feels insignificant. However, due to this fact and now being of adult age, he is being transferred to maximum security where he meets Mark (Cosmo Jarvis) and Warren (Guy Pearce). What Mel doesn’t know but soon finds out is that Mark is a notorious killer, and Warren seems to have accepted his fate and taken a more peaceful outlook onto life with his time in prison. As Mel adopts both Mark and Warren as his father-like figures, he’s put at impasse as Warren essentially invokes a bounty on Mark’s head and tries to recruit Mel as the person to commit the act. It creates an engaging environment that gets fleshed out nearly too much as the audience tries to get in the mind of these characters and the decisions they make and ultimately what got them there.
Vincent Miller as Mel Blight in INSIDE. Photo courtesy of Quiver Distribution/Tribeca Film Festival.
Inside has the right elements to be something engaging and exceptional, but something is just off and missing. It comes down to the overall end product feeling a little longer than needed and the performances being just shy of bringing it home. None of the performances are, by any means, bad, they’re just not delivering on all fronts. There are elements and moments that are truly excellent which create a world of unease, fear, and intrigue, but they’re far and few between, the distance preventing these moments to congeal to create something something everlasting and impactful that truly does blow the audience away.
Vincent Miller as Mel Blight in INSIDE. Photo courtesy of Quiver Distribution/Tribeca Film Festival.
When it comes to the performances, they’re all good — and that is the biggest and largest issue with the movie itself. Vincent Miller (Bosch & Rockit) truly is the standout in the movie and he has moments of greatness throughout, but it’s not consistent as sometimes the performance falls apart. Cosmo Jarvis (Annihilation; Warfare) excels in the role as the jaded killer who is dangerous, but the performance lacks depth. There is something inherently terrifying about his performance and character, but it just lacks that conviction. Lastly, Guy Pearce (The Brutalist), who is consistently great, only delivers greatness and a relatively shocking moment near the end of the film. Everything else just misses that umph. No one is bad in the movie, and it may not even be the script because it’s not the dialogue that lacks conviction, it is just the way it’s mostly delivered and executed that leaves something more to be desired. Overall, Inside is good but it’s not great.
Screening during Tribeca Film Festival 2025.
In select theaters, on VOD, and digital June 20th, 2025.
For more information, head to the official Tribeca Film Festival Inside webpage.
Final Score: 3 out of 5.
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Categories: In Theaters, Reviews, streaming
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