Mismanaged Masculinity: Walters’ Gritty Debut Lacks Impactful Style Over Its Solid Substance
After himself leading the long running Channel 4 turned Netflix smash hit Top Boy showcasing the toxic masculinity of London gang culture, actor-turned-director Ashley Walters treads similar territory here with his prison drama debut Animol. Despite a fantastic lead performance and grungy realism Walters struggles to make his film stand out from similar, superior British prison stories.
Troy (Tut Nyuot) has landed himself in a juvenile detention centre with the charges of conspiracy to commit murder. We are immediately thrust into the cold, hard reality of this terrifying transition for teens as he tries to navigate the prison and the volatile people that make up the skewered democracy. His initial cellmate Mason (Ryan Dean) is a violent psychopath who stabbed his father 36 times and he’s soon caught between a rock and a hard place between Mason and drug pusher Dion (Sekhou Diaby). This is all made harder when a forges a close and confusing bond with Polish thief Krystian (Vladyslav Baliuk) as he tries to survive by appeasing each dangerous force.
While the script from Nick Love (who made his name with a film based on a similar violent subculture in 2004’s The Football Factory) seems to get the world of hierarchical nastiness and nuanced slang terms, director Walters fails to capitalize. He coaxes a brilliant portrayal of desolated, disrupted youth from Tut Nyuot who carries the film with his repressed vulnerability and likeable demeanor outside of conflict but his directorial style is flat. The intensity of the regular beatings and intimidation are compelling but Walters often films in variations on the same theme with flat, static shots that don’t add much to the volatility. It bears a lot of similarities to Cal Mcmau’s debut Wasteman (2025) but while that film revelled in invention and unbearable tension Animol often plays it safe.
As the pressures and the story evolves and Troy finds himself walking through multiple alleys of trouble there is a queer element that doesn’t quite come out of the blue but is never built on enough. It’s a surprise and harsh switch in tone which is subsequently utilised to up the ante and ends up feeling contrived. There’s a surrogate father figure in Claypole (Stephen Graham), a welfare officer who can see the good in Troy but he’s fatally underused. This is similar to Troy’s recovering addict mother Joy (Sharon Duncan-Brewster) who provides a necessary respite and explanation as to Troy’s withdrawal but is never fully baked into the story.
There is plenty of promise littered throughout Animol and there’s a solid truth that suggests the problem with these violent teens is in fact, their lack of love and nurturing, their fear of being judged and perceived as different. It’s blend in or die but an ill advised late scene of levity unravels much of the grit that came before it. The film shoots by with adrenaline to spare but shackles itself to an easier and repetitive explanation than really offering anything new for repressed working class characters cheated by the system.
Reviewed on October 14th at the 2026 London BFI Film Festival (70th edition) First Feature Competition programme. 90 Minutes.
★★½/☆☆☆☆☆
