Why I Love Jack O'Connell: Top 5 Films

When an actor has been picked by director Shane Meadows to feature in a film like This is England, you know they are bound to be special. Strangely though, the15 year old Jack O'Connell only had a very minor role in that British classic before getting to really show his skills in later films like Eden Lake and many more. So even though This is England is possibly the best film on O'Connell's CV, you will not find it on this list of his five finest performances.

With Angelina Jolie's Unbroken on the verge of release and likely to see O'Connell's star go stratopheric, here is a look back at what I consider to be his best five performances so far. Expect Unbroken (in which he plays Olympian and POW survivor Louis Zamperini) to be the film to send this guy straight to super stardom.

5. Eden Lake

The first of O'Connell's properly nasty little shits. He seemed to savour the nastiness with every line spat and every smirk and sneer coming naturally to this swaggering young actor. Tormenting Kelly Reilly and Michael Fassbender to death, Brett is a hooded terror; the Daily Mail's worst nightmare. 

4. Tower Block

O'Connell delivers a towering performance in a pretty decent low budget British sniper thriller. He's an awesomely unlikeable anti-hero who steals the limelight from the cast around him.

3. The Liability

O’Connell might have been in danger of being typecast, with his wide-boy posturing becoming a little familiar here but he manages to keep Adam very sympathetic, aided hugely by a strong script and some great banter with Tim Roth. It is another of his sure to be star making turns with Adam being a laugh out loud presence in the film.

2. '71

O’Connell has far less of his usual swagger here; more of a limp actually. It’s arguably his best performance, turning that usual confidence into a cowering, wounded and terrified boy out of his depth. Gone is the hard lad, replaced with something more sincere and though the camera is often pinned to his face, he rarely speaks and gives little away. In fact, by the end of ‘71, we still know little of Gary Hook, but enough to care that he gets home.

1. Starred Up

Jack O’Connell is frequently a Jack-the-Lad type character and this is never more true than in Starred Up. He even has 'Jack the Lad' tattooed on his arm and his sneer, swagger and savagery all attest to the boy’s unflinching desire to do damage. After being brought in to an adult prison, he is stripped and processed. Silent for the first ten minutes of the film, he might appear an unproblematic prisoner. But alone in his cell, he goes about setting himself up with makeshift (and terrifying) weapons and ensuring that when he is attacked, he will be ready. He is a caged animal; cornered, grunted at by the guards, dismissed or threatened by other prisoners but totally unafraid to fight his way out of any corner by any means necessary. O'Connell is riveting and it is one of the best performances of 2014. It will be interesting to see if he can top it with Unbroken.

What is your favourite Jack O'Connell performance?

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The Rise and Rise of Jack O'Connell: From This is England to Unbroken

In case you hadn’t noticed, Jack O’Connell is about to go mega-star massive. His next film appearance will be in Angelina Jolie’s second film as director, Unbroken. This is the true story of Louis Zamperini, an Olympic athlete turned military man and plane crash survivor who then survived years of torture as a prisoner of war. Zamperini is an incredible man with an unbelievable life story and Jolie has plucked the relatively unknown (at least in the US) O’Connell to bring Zamperini to life in a film that is sure to gobble Oscar nominations in 2015.

I’ve had my eye on Jack O’Connell for a while now, even if his career to date had been filled with an alarming amount of tough guy thugs. I can’t say I noticed him or paid any particular attention to him way back in one of my favourite films This is England but he is there and the performance is notable as O’Connell’s Pukey isn’t his usual brand of wideboy. O’Connell’s character has a particularly terrifying encounter with Stephen Graham’s menacing racist Combo when O’Connell dares to challenge his beliefs.

O’Connell had many roles in British TV from The Bill through Waterloo Road, Wire in the Blood and Skins but it was the double whammy of Eden Lake and Harry Brown that cemented his status as a go-to-geezer for low-budget British filmmakers. In both these films, but particularly Eden Lake he got to play terrifyingly horrible little bastards; becoming incredibly memorable as the kind of hooded monster that the media was always banging on about as the use of the word ‘chav’ became acceptable in the tabloid press. Banging heads with Michael Fassbender and Michael Caine, Jack O’Connell managed to easily hold his own with these older and more experienced acting greats.

Eden Lake clip

O’Connell was then given bigger parts in the likes of little known films such as Tower Block and The Liability. They may be small films but O’Connell’s swaggering performances were bigger and better than the films he was in. Playing the hoodlum was a speciality and O’Connell could have easily been stuck by typecasting positioning him as a loudmouth loutish lad for life but then he was delivered a couple of really interesting roles to start flexing his acting muscles with.

Tower Block Trailer

The Liability Trailer

While a small but notable role in 300: Rise of an Empire allowed him to show off a six pack and likely take a tidy paycheque, it was his performances in the excellent Starred Up  and '71 that should really have seen him become a massive star in 2014. As young convict Eric Love in Starred Up , O’Connell got to face off with Ben Mendelsohn as his jailbird father but also show a fascinating vulnerability beneath the bravado. Similarly, in '71 his usual swagger was replaced by a limp as O’Connell’s soldier spends most of the film injured, scared and running for his life from the IRA in Belfast.

Starred Up Trailer

I’d recommend any of these films, particularly just to watch O’Connell at work. His rise to the top has been filled with great performances but Unbroken looks set to be the one that really puts him on the international map. 2014 has already been an exceptional year for the star but it will be crowned by the true life story of horror and hope that Jolie has in bringing to big screens on Boxing Day. Don’t be surprised if O’Connell is up for Best Actor in 2015 awards season. He’s already earned it.

Unbroken Trailer

Still here? What is your favourite performance from Jack O'Connell?

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Film Review - Tower Block (James Nunn, Ronnie Thompson, 2012)

British films can be grim. We can be known for a spot of realism, a dash of depression, and a healthy pouring of poverty. But Britain is also known for horror; not Hollywood glossy horror but gritty, disturbing, dirty horror. Think The Wicker Man. Think 28 Days Later.

Closing this year’s celebration of horror, the London FrightFest was James Nunn and Ronnie Thompson’s dark and grisly sniper thriller Tower Block. Following the likes of Britain’s own sci-fi-horror-comedy mash up Attack the Block and Indonesia’s The Raid, not to mention Dredd 3D’s similar setting, it might seem Tower Block will be a hard sell for audiences potentially tiring of tower blocks and in search of more blocks being busted.

But it would be a shame if Tower Block fails to find an audience as the directorial duo’s film has much to recommend it, though it’s distinctly British cast and setting may limit the international appeal. Starring British stars from the small screen, the plot sees the inhabitants of a mostly empty tower block being terrorised by a sniper. The last of the residents live on the top floor and have yet to be relocated as the block is set for demolition. This grim and gutsy bunch include feisty, smart and resourceful Becky (Sheridan Smith from Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps, but don’t hold that against her) local Jack the Lad Kurtis (Harry Brown and Eden Lake’s Jack O’Connell in a potentially breakout role) and other tenants including a struggling alcoholic and one of the world’s worst mothers.

Three months after this motley crew witness a murder right outside their doors, a sniper begins to pick them off one by one in their apartments. Once they get away from the windows and realise that the place is rendered inescapable by deadly booby traps and cut communications, the group must overcome their differences and find a way to survive, maybe even finding out who has got them targeted in the crosshairs.

The characters are a mixture of the well-written and the underdeveloped but this is hardly surprising with a film that has a body count this high. Sheridan Smith’s Becky makes a convincingly tough, fearless hero. She is backed up by the initially vile Kurtis who threatens to steal the show with O’Connell’s bordering on OTT performance being a highlight. But Ralph Brown and Russell Tovey also bring depth to their characters and audiences will find themselves hoping for some of them to make it out of the tower block alive.

Nunn and Thompson milk James Moran’s (Cockney’s vs Zombies) script for every last drop of tension and suspense and through a careful mix of characterisation and consistent killing, the film never fails to keep you guessing.  Who is next to bite the bullet? Who will survive? 

Owen Morris’ score is excellent and the claustrophobic cinematography keeps the characters in constant danger, adding to the sense of dread.  But the climax is unfortunately fumbled with a last minute reveal being head-smackingly obvious and awkwardly over-written. The final fight for life could have been incredibly exciting but as it is, fails to ignite the fuse lit by much of the rest of the movie. The odd bit of dialogue between the characters does have shortcomings but generally the actors keep things believable.  

Nevertheless this is a well made British thriller that’s worth watching if you like your body counts high and your strong female heroes. It’s a bloodthirsty film with characters that pop up, just as easily to drop down like holey flies and though it might have targeted horror fans at FrightFest, there is scope for a wider, thrill seeking audience to come under fire from this one. On this evidence, it seems like there may still be some life left in the old tower block setting yet.

Tower Block Trailer Shoots to Kill

After The Raid, Dredd 3D and less recently Attack the Block, you'd think the tower block would be ready to be retired as a location for an action thriller.  But British director James Nunn has come up with another promising take on tower block terror, filling one with the likes of Sheridan Smith (lots of British TV) and Jack O' Connell (more British TV, a few films) and the legend that is Ralph (Camberwell Carrot) Brown.  Then a sniper is unleashed, taking potshots at this unsuspecting bunch and chaos ensues.

Tower Block closed this year's FrightFest and has a promising score of 7.3 over at IMDb from the 47 people who have rated it so far.  With Cockneys Vs Zombies getting good reviews (also written by James Moran) and Ben Wheatley's Sightseers being one of the must-see films at this year's London Film Festival, it looks like the British horror film is in rude health.

Tower Block is out tomorrow in the UK and below you can watch the suspenseful trailer:



Read my review of Tower Block here.  Will you be braving this one in the cinema?