REVIEW: THE CORRECTION UNIT

This is a wickedly good little indie Sci-Fi thriller from UK-based writer/director Derry Shillitto. For a debut feature film, this movie comes out of the gate swinging hard!

It's set in a near-future Britain and follows the fate of youthful troublemakers Shawn (Sonny Middleton) and Tish (Elleese Bradshaw) who get caught up in a gangland deal gone bad.

After a stint in juvenile detention, they are shipped off to a special, somewhat shadowy school for a form of "re-integration" training. Other young people that they meet while being processed are the affable Jacob (Zak Hopkinson) and the anger-driven Sonny (Sonny Lake) The school is run by Yvonne (Kirsty Smedley) and the charming, sinister James (Ziad Abaza)

Helping to smooth things out and make the kids the best version of themselves that they can be is the AI program nTrac, voiced by Bella Ramsey of THE LAST OF US and GAME OF THRONES fame. This is by turns a friendly, helpful, chilling, and ominously all-intrusive addition to the faculty. It's really great dystopian stuff!

This film explores many themes, such as youth on the margins of society in the UK, the rise of AI as a tool not simply for learning, but for control of both thoughts and actions, and is really an unsettling look at a future that is not really far off and could become all too real. James' motivations in particular, especially in one scene where he addresses a crowd of enthusiastic spectators for what appears to be a Tech-bro sales pitch TED talk, are downright frightening because they so closely mirror reality.

THE CORRECTION UNIT is a fantastically crafted and acted indie film that has outstanding performances across the board, and really stellar work from the young cast. This is the kind of smaller budget indie stuff that filmmakers should strive for, because it's smart, polished, and really makes you think after it's all wrapped up.