This is my spoiler-filled review of the movie Wasteman. So let’s get to it.
The story of this movie revolves around a man named Taylor who is about to finish his sentence and be released. Taylor has been in prison for years, and it’s not as if he committed any violent crime or is the typical criminal you’d expect to find behind bars—Taylor even looks like the kind of guy who wouldn’t hurt a fly. But since people are judged not by their appearance but by their actions, Taylor hasn’t seen the light of day in over a decade.
The performance by the actor (David Jonsson), who plays the lead role of Taylor, is excellent, as we see how he manages to survive in an environment where he could die at any moment. Taylor isn’t a big, strong, or violent guy; his greatest strength is knowing how to navigate among people who could do whatever they please to him, since Taylor lacks the physical strength to defend himself. So, avoiding trouble, flying under the radar, and not appearing to be a threat is Taylor’s strategy.
All that calm and composure—the entire reputation Taylor has built over his thirteen years in prison—is threatened when a new cellmate arrives, putting at risk both his life and the freedom he is just days away from regaining.
A new inmate arrives in the cell—someone who calls himself “Dee”—and he’s the complete opposite of Taylor. While Taylor wanted to fly under the radar, Dee is flamboyant, loud, someone who won’t keep quiet in front of anyone and who respects no one else; Dee is exactly what we picture when we think of a violent prisoner. Dee is there to make noise and get noticed.
Taylor and Dee strike up a sort of friendship in which we see that Dee is the one in control, as he begins to win Taylor over with various favors. Dee is a dealer in prison; he also has contacts on the outside and manages to sell drugs to the other inmates. Dee enjoys a sort of favorable treatment, so he was likely also bribing a security guard inside the prison. Dee sees that Taylor is someone he can dominate beyond physical strength, since Taylor is an addict; moreover, Taylor naively reveals private information to Dee—information that Dee can use against him if things don’t go as planned.
The point is that Dee demands absolute loyalty to him; for him, there are no gray areas—you’re either with him or against him. Because of this, when other inmates force Taylor to attack Dee, things get complicated, as their friendship is already fractured and both begin to distrust each other.
I think I’ll leave the movie review at that; you’ll have to discover the rest for yourselves when you watch it. But my conclusion is that Taylor isn’t innocent, and to me, the act he committed suggests he already had experience doing that—which is why I think he ended up in prison. When you watch the movie, you’ll understand what I mean.