We Are Monsters

This is very much Alexander's show. Despite moments of audition-piece excess, the young actor... almost single-handedly keeps We Are Monster watchable, exuding a malign charisma that dominates the screen and compels our appalled fascination.

Inexperienced filmmakers bite off more than they can chew with this well-intentioned but shockingly clumsy dramatisation of a true-life tragedy.

Socked over with heartfelt dedication by its young cast and director, it's an unsettling description of a brutal episode that, despite some awkwardness in approach, does its job with admirable sincerity.

While there are times when it almost sinks under the weight of its sense of dark anger and depression, it is Leeshon Alexander fine performance that keeps it from sinking under.

Missteps apart, however, Monster remains a compelling dissection of a diseased young mind.

A top notch British prison drama, that avoids the usual pitfalls of the genre.

Noble ambitions, narratively discordant delivery.

We Are Monster is unsettling, but not entirely successful.

The film certainly succeeds in generating a mood of claustrophobic menace, but the dramatic elements are too often clumsily realised.

It plays like clumsily opened-out fringe theatre.

We Are Monster deserves note for its spirited rejection of the obvious, naturalistic narrative path, and Simon Richards' cinematography has considerable style and elegance.

Contains a stark beauty and a poignant, nagging sense of sorrow.