K-11

Released by: Breaking Glass Pictures
Released on: April 23, 2013.
Director: Jules Stewart
Cast: Goran Visnjic, Kate Del Castillo, D.B. Sweeney, Portia Doubleday, Jason Mewes
Year: 2012
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The Movie:

The big deal surrounding the release of K-11 is that it was directed by Jules Stewart, the movie of Twilight 'it girl' Kristen Stewart. This has nothing to do with sparkly vampires or dreamy werewolves, however - it's a messy, sleazy prison film that pushes some buttons and throws in everything but the kitchen sink.

The central plotline follow a man named Raymond Saxx Jr. (Goran Visnjic) who makes himself a very nice living as a highly regarded record producer. One night he goes out and parties a little too hard, drinking and drugging and doing all sorts of things he probably shouldn't. When he wakes up, he's incarcerated in a Los Angeles prison for homosexuals under the K-11 classification. Raymond, however, is straight - he's also been charged with murder.

As he tries to put together the pieces of the events leading up to all of this, he has to quickly adapt to life inside this prison. Here a transsexual named Mousey (Kate del Castillo) rules the roost with an iron fist. There's also the matter of a younger transgendered character named Butterfly (Portia Doubleday) and a locked up child molester named Detroit (Tommy 'Tiny' Lister) - both of whom have their place in this strange society. Lording over everyone is Lt. Johnson (D.B. Sweeney), a deputy with a penchant for cruelty. Working under Johnson is Ben (Jason Mewes), a man not above profiting off of an inmate population hungry for drugs and willing to do whatever he wants to get them. As Raymond gets to know all of the players he tries desperately to find a way to get in touch with those outside the prison, someone who might be able to help him, but it doesn't look good for him.

Possibly inspired by HBO's prison series OZ, this movie has a pretty solid premise, one that leaves itself wide open to explore gender issues in prison life and to tackle some potentially controversial subjects in a thought provoking manner. There are moments where the movie does this, where it forces you to think about what you'd do in Raymond's situation and how you might react to the events in the film, given that you'd have no other choice but to accept them. With that said, the movie also plays it very safe - female performers are cast as transsexual characters, and it's problematic in that it seems obvious at times that these are women in the roles. This makes for an odd contradiction in that the story wants to be daring and at times it is, but the execution takes the easy way out. Kate del Castillo never comes across as a man or anyone who may have been a man at some point - this instantly hurts the movie's credibility.

All is not lost, however. Though there are moments where the movie loses focus of the plot and seems like a series of incidents and altercations strung together with little rhyme or reason, some of the performances are pretty good. Visnjic is solid in the lead and Sweeney is as reliable as ever here, Lister too. Mewes is fine in his role, if a bit unremarkable, while Doubleday actually manages to infuse in her character some genuinely heartfelt emotion. The film is interesting, it's quirky, it's occasionally very bitchy in how it explores relationships both dominant and submissive, and although it's not exactly what you'd call a realistic exploration of prison life, it's a fairly entertaining movie.

Video/Audio/Extras:

K-11 arrives on Blu-ray from Breaking Glass films in an AVC encoded 2.35.1 widescreen 1080p high definition transfer. This was a picture made on a modest budget shot on HD video but it translates to Blu-ray very nicely. The image is strong in detail and texture and while the film is shot almost entirely inside some very drab locations, color reproduction seems quite natural and realistic. Black levels are good, there aren't any obvious compression issues nor are there any problems with dirt or debris (there's the advantage of a digital to digital transfer). Aside from some shimmering and a bit of crush in some of the darker scenes, the movie looks good in high definition.

English audio options are provided in DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio and in Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo. There are no alternate language options of any kind but closed captioning is offered up in English. The lossless mix here is also impressive. There's quite a bit of depth to the crowd scenes and the quieter scenes offer some nice details to zone in on in the background - various sounds of prison life. Dialogue stays crisp, clean and clear and the levels are always properly balanced. Range is solid, directional effects are present throughout and help to build atmosphere in some key scenes. This is an impressive mix.

Extras start off with a commentary track from Jules Stewart and Tom Wright that gives us a sometimes scene specific rundown of what it was like shooting on location inside an actual prison and what they learned from that experience. There are quite a few moments of drawn out silence, which hurts things and makes it occasionally hard to pay attention, but so too are there some interesting stories told about the shoot and the experiences of the cast and crew. Some more details on the writing and editing process might have helped with some of the movie's weaknesses but it doesn't really go there.

From there we move on to a selection of interviews with cast and crew members Goran Visnjic, Kate del Castillo, D.B. Sweeney and then a five minute collection of 'other people' like Jason Mewes and Markus Redmond. There's quite a bit of discussion on the part of the actors here in regards to what appealed to them about this movie, their characters and the challenges that they encountered trying to bring them to life and more. When it's all said and done there's about eighteen minutes of material here.

The disc also includes a brief two minute long Behind-The-Scenes featurette that is really just a random assortment of on-set footage presented without much context. Rounding out the extras is a collection of Deleted Scenes (four scenes over eight minutes), a trailer for the feature, a video for the song "My Liberty" by Billy Morrison, a still gallery, animated menus and chapter selection. All of the extras on the disc are presented in high definition.

The Final Word:

Weird. Trashy. Catty, even. K-11 doesn't always work as a drama or as an art film and though it blends elements of exploitation pictures, it's not quite that either. The movie is entertaining enough if you find the subject matter of interest. The film wanders and frequently seems misguided but it's well shot, surprisingly well acted and very often bizarre enough that some will find something to appreciate here. Breaking Glass score high marks for presentation, as the disc looks and sounds very good, with a reasonable does of extras tossed in for good measure.

Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!