Wasteman (Cal Mcmau, 2026): United Kingdom

Reviewed by Paloma Paz. Viewed at SBIFF

I went and saw Wasteman directed by Cal Mcmau, This was a British film about two men in prison, Dee and Taylor. Taylor is in jail for drug dealing but he got 15 years. This is a perfect example of the idea the film is trying to get at, which is the problems with the criminal justice system especially for men. I found this film to be reflective of how the criminal justice system becomes a trap for men, this film showed perfect examples of how toxic masculinity traps men in a loop of self destruction. 

Taylor ended up being involved in a really bad drug scene in prison. He became heavily addicted to drugs in prison primarily because his cellmate was selling drugs. We also see that he feels immense guilt towards his family, his son especially who grew up without a father. He gets involved in a bad violent prison fight because he snitched on his cellmate, it ends up becoming really problematic for him. Dee feels the need to punish Taylor for this and beat him up, making him do really dangerous violence things. Purely because he feels the need to prove his power and his control over others. Both the actors for Dee and Taylor, were phenomenal. I had seen the actor Tom Blyth in other films before and he did well in them. But I hadn’t seen David Jonsson before, I think he did great. The film was full of a lot of extreme close up’s. And Jonsson played Taylor very well, he did a lot of silent acting, showing the character’s thoughts and feelings only through body language and facial expressions. 

Some things that really stuck out to me in this film would definitely be the cinematography. This film felt like it was older because of the camera used. The film felt grainy and the color grade was very unique, it added to the rugged vibe of the film. Also one interesting aspect of the film was there were montages made on an iPhone that would be added into the film. These scenes from the montage were all violent fight scenes, filmed on phones in order to convey the personal connection these inmates have to the whole hierarchy in prison. There’s a whole power dynamic in the prisons, where there are really powerful men and then men who have to do their bidding because of debts and what not. These montage scenes were supposed to look like they were filmed on iphones, to portray the prisoners posting videos on social media of people getting jumped and scammed etc. 

This film does a great job at analyzing the entertainment of imprisonment and masculinity. Each go hand in hand, Taylor is a great example of how this toxicity, this self destructive relationship with masculinity can be detrimental. Both Taylor and Dee felt the need to prove themselves, to stay on top, to immerse themselves in power. Dee’s inability to apologize, to seek out for help, to open up ended up causing huge problems for him. This film is so important because it shows that to the audience, we sit there watching it, and we are upset because of how all these issues spiraled out of ego and violence.

This reminded me of another film I saw about a man who was falsely accused and sentenced to many years in prison and really struggled, because it’s hard to excel and stay focused on getting out when you’re surrounded by men who are bad influences and pulling you down with them. This also reminded me of the central park 5 which was a film about 5 men in New York who were falsely accused of murdering and raping a woman. They were imprisoned and a lot of them kept in solitary for decades. These films are all proof of how catastrophic our justice system is, how prison is viewed by society as punishment and nothing more. In reality it should be about change and progress for a person. I think it’s a super important film to see, because Wasteman doesn’t avoid harsh scenes and doesn’t avoid showing the extreme violent scenarios the men in these prisons face. This way you fully can grasp the feeling of Taylor, and understand the perspectives of the characters. Understood not as villains but as people.