Fresh out of prison, a man called X (Santiago Segura) is looking to put his life right. He’s introduced to his parole officer, Emma (Isadora Goreshter) and is told in no uncertain terms that if he does anything to break the terms of his parole that he will go back to jail, after all parole is a privilege.

Knowing how hard it will be to get a job, X still tries and does find a job at a restaurant where his boss, Avakian (Jon Sklaroff) knows all too well the kind of power he will have over X and hires him thinking that his new employee will be easy to keep in line considering the alternative. However, over time X meets an old friend, Danny (Jonathon Howard) and after a persuasive conversation, Danny tells X about a job that may be of interest to him, but it will lead him back to his former life.

The Five Rules of Success is a dark and tense character study about a man with the world at his feet who feels like he has nowhere to go. Writer/director Orson Oblowitz may have a couple of films under his belt already, but his particularly unique style shines in his latest as it shows how his visual eye can be transferred to something more real compared to his past work.

Segura also gives a great performance as a man who has hope for his future, only for his hopes to be dashed away and realising that to survive, he has to change.

A difficult watch, but one that is visually stunning and tense, The Five Rules of Success may offer up a positive future, but its script and situations that X finds himself in are something that may resonate with an audience. Particularly if those members of the audience have found themselves between a rock and a hard place.

There may have been a temptation here to glamourise the violence or the allure of the criminal lifestyle, but thankfully that’s never shown in the subdued account of X’s life after release, only ever shown on his face as he loses faith in humanity.

A film that may not leave the audience thinking that they have been entertained, but The Five Rules of Success reminds us that life has a way of disregarding even our best intentions.

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