Rent Wasteman (2025)

The Shape of It - Wasteman review by griggs

David Jonsson carries Wasteman almost entirely on his back, and the weight of it doesn’t show. His Taylor is a man trying to shrink himself small enough to slip through the gap leading to parole — quiet, careful, holding himself together one day at a time. Then Tom Blyth’s Dee arrives, all chaos and menace, and Taylor’s survival plan starts to unravel.

Cal McMau’s debut is lean and efficient: ninety minutes, no padding, none of the choreographed violence of a Hollywood prison film. Forest Swords’ score hums underneath everything like something bad about to happen.

The central dynamic is familiar enough that you spot the shape of it early. The supporting cast feel more like parts of the prison machinery than people with lives beyond it. It holds you without ever quite haunting you.

Prison is the sort of place where everyone talks about freedom and nobody seems able to reach it. Wasteman understands that better than most — it just isn’t the first to say so.