Apr 16, 2026 8:49pm PT

‘Wasteman’ Review: David Jonsson and Tom Blyth Add Character to a Brawny but Familiar Prison Drama

The stars bring forlorn and feral energy, respectively, to Cal McMau's BAFTA-nominated debut feature, which is violently jolting if never exactly surprising.

Guy Lodge

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Guy Lodge

Film Critic

@guylodge

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James A. Demetriou

British actor David Jonsson is only five films into his career, but you’d already know his gaze anywhere: Even in a film as spry and bright as the 2023 romcom “Rye Lane,” those crinkly, softly drooping eyes bring an air of old-soul melancholy to proceedings. But they’ve never borne quite as much sorrow as they do in “Wasteman,” a coolly brutal prison drama that follows a pretty rusty narrative template — hardened inmate on the brink of parole struggles to stay on the straight and narrow — but finds more interest in the dueling masculine energies of its two principal stars. If Jonsson, as the nearly-free man in question, is all guarded regret and head-down resilience, Tom Blyth is his lethal opposite number: As a near-feral cellmate from hell, he’s the disruptive force that gives an otherwise predictable film a spark of erratic danger.

'Wasteman' Review: David Jonsson and Tom Blyth Add Character to a Brawny but Familiar Prison Drama