French director Kim Chapiron, working in America, decided to tackle a thorny issue that afflicts many a young person in the country: being sent to a juvenile detention center. The idea is that young people will reform in those institutions, when the reality is they probably come out worse off than when they went in, which is the message one gets after watching this violent account of youth deprived of freedom.
The prison genre has been done better before, but to his credit, Kim Chapiron has gathered a good cast, especially with the happy selection of Adam Butcher in the leading role, to give life to this drama. The screenplay was written by Mr. Chapiron and Jeremie Delon. "Dog Pound" keeps reminding a lot of the contributors to this forum of Alan Clarke's much better "Scum", a film in which the great Ray Winstone was the absolute star.
The prison genre has been done better before, but to his credit, Kim Chapiron has gathered a good cast, especially with the happy selection of Adam Butcher in the leading role, to give life to this drama. The screenplay was written by Mr. Chapiron and Jeremie Delon. "Dog Pound" keeps reminding a lot of the contributors to this forum of Alan Clarke's much better "Scum", a film in which the great Ray Winstone was the absolute star.