75
The performances are mostly good, and the direction and editing work wonders in the tight gray interiors of the juvenile prison. Not for everyone, but worthwhile viewing for the not-easily-shocked.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
90
Village Voice by Alan Scherstuhl
One of the great films about boys and violence, about the allure and horror and inevitability of young toughs seizing power by smashing some skulls — and replicating, in their own private hellscape, the societal structures that have ground them down.
80
The New York Times by Ben Kenigsberg
If some of the plot seems familiar, the intelligence with which Mr. Clarke dissects the flaws of Britain’s “borstal” system is not. [15 Jun 2017]
80
Los Angeles Times by Justin Chang
In Scum, one of only three features he directed for the big screen, Clarke finds a bleak beauty in an institution devoted to controlling, yet also propagating, all manner of human ugliness.
75
The A.V. Club by Mike D'Angelo
A straightforward prison flick, basically, honoring all of the genre’s many conventions, from the sadistic screws to the wars between rival cell blocks to the innocent who gets brutally gang-raped.
75
The Film Stage by Mike Mazzanti
Scum lives up to its title to this day, its manic energy balanced with an assured and naked openness that creates a searing level of realism and, as such, savagery.