Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
A family man convicted of killing an intruder must cope with life afterward in the violent penal system.
Felon is a gritty, underseen prison drama elevated significantly by strong performances, particularly from Val Kilmer and Stephen Dorff. The plot follows a fairly conventional wrongful-circumstances-lands-man-in-prison arc, hitting familiar beats of survival, moral compromise, and institutional brutality without straying far from genre expectations. The acting is a genuine standout — Kilmer delivers one of his best late-career performances and Dorff is compelling throughout. Cinematography is functional and appropriately raw but not distinguished. Novelty is limited; the prison-survival thriller is well-trodden territory and Felon doesn't reimagine the formula, even if it executes it credibly. The ending is serviceable but somewhat predictable given the setup.