Dog Pound

Name: Dog Pound
Director: Kim Chapiron
Released: 2010

Synopsis

Three juvenile delinquents arrive at a correctional center and are put under the care of an experienced guard.

83
IndieWire
Chapiron stubbornly avoids an uplifting message, portraying his dangerous setting as a demonstration of virility that leads to madness.
80
Total Film
With largely improvised dialogue and a cast including genuine ex-offenders, Chapiron captures a powerful stench of authenticity.
63
Slant Magazine
The plot willfully denies our satisfaction, often at the risk of compromising its own structural integrity.
60
The Guardian
Perhaps this tells us nothing new about life on the inside in the US (there are rapes, riots and suicides), but it at least handles its brief with pace and precision.
60
The New York Times
Kim Chapiron, proves an excellent choreographer of brutality...But without a strong political point (unlike its source material), Dog Pound feels hollow and hopeless.
50
The Hollywood Reporter
Although it has a visceral intensity, this teen-centered prison movie doesn't avoid the familiar tropes of its genre.
40
Empire
Visceral and inquisitive, this well researched movie offers a punchy insight to prison life. Unfortunately, it is a familiar and tepid storyline.
40
Time Out
Dog Pound only rarely finds the live-wire energy needed to make up for its amateur cast and staunch adherence to well-worn archetypes: cell-block bullies, sadistic guards, fresh-fish innocents, etc. Neither the film’s bark nor its bite leaves much of a mark.