Connect with us
Compliance 2012 Film Review

Film

Compliance is Unnerving Everyday Horror

A normal Friday service at a fast food restaurant becomes interrupted by a police officer who claims an employee stole from a customer, but something more sinister is going on.

Power. Manipulation. Obedience.

As it is with train wrecks, so it goes with Compliance, a thoroughly shattering film that is less a narrative than a descent into the depths of human weakness. Inspired by roughly 70 real world accounts, Compliance is the tale of a young fast food employee, here named Becky (Dreama Walker), who is interrogated, stripped, and abused by her manager and others because a man impersonating an officer over the phone has instructed them to. Given how ludicrous that is outside of the context of it actually happening, director Craig Zobel makes the sordid affair eminently believable.

And his methods are stealthily unnerving. The first ten minutes suggest more of a workplace comedy than a parable on the fragility of will. Employees gossip and flirt, Becky’s manager, Sandra (Ann Dowd), takes everything way too seriously, the franchise is called ChickWhich, and all the places are set for farce and romance and maybe just a little heart. But then a man named Officer Daniels (Pat Healy) calls and asks to speak to a manager about Becky, and the two head into a back storeroom.

Compliance is less a narrative than a descent into the depths of human weakness…

Throughout the film, with shots of happy ChickWhich customers and busy employees, Zobel throws the drama between Sandra and Becky into stark contrast. And even Sandra herself is so much of a quirky character that small moments of severely uncomfortable comedy hang putrid in the air. Pat Healy, too, brings an uncomfortable suave and comic timing to the affair that is truly unnerving. Combine all this with an absurdly bombastic score, and Compliance ends up being a very tonally odd film. But it is in the service of shocking the audience with the depth to which people sink–not to mention that clip at which they get there. Zobel has not built a film around a terrible true crime–he has let a crime infect his other movie.

Ann Dowd and Dreama Walker are two outstanding performers who are incredibly difficult to watch. Dowd plays her part through a veil of preconceptions and idiosyncrasies that is as powerful as it is insanely frustrating, while Walker captures with skilled precision that systematic breaking of the human will. Healy treats his role with the practiced confidence of a salesperson and the vile joy of a monster.

In the end, Compliance is just that: the face of compliance. It is a tale about how, in Zobel’s mind, a group of characters might go from zero to felony in the course of a phone call. If that sounds appealing, this is a fascinating film. If that sounds stressful and difficult to watch, well it is that too.

Now Streaming

Written By

Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Facebook

Trending

G20 review: President Viola Davis goes Rambo against Antony Starr’s crypto bro terrorist

Film

The Weeknd Reveals His New Album “Hurry Up Tomorrow” Was Originally A Film

Celebrity

Megan Thee Stallion Called Out By Houston Rapper For Allegedly Stealing Her Song

Celebrity

How Did Havoc End? Unpacking the Shocking Twists in Netflix’s New Tom Hardy Action Movie

Film

Big U Is Considering Asking Donald Trump For Help With His Massive RICO Case

Celebrity

NLE Choppa Introduces His New Children’s Book To Memphis Preschoolers With A Read-A-Long

Celebrity

Lorde Announces New Album, ‘Virgin’: ‘100% Written in Blood’

Celebrity

Kali Uchis dating history

Celebrity

Smokey Robinson Sued For Alleged Sexual Assault By Former Housekeepers

Celebrity

Ray J Gets Baptized By His Father And Blasts Haters For Not Believing In Him

Celebrity

Danny Brown Teases “SCARING THE HOES” Volume 2 With JPEGMAFIA

Celebrity

Sheryl Crow on Settling Down but Still Fighting the Power in Nashville: ‘I Call My Representatives Every Single Morning’

Celebrity

The Story of an Extraordinary Woman, Played by an Extraordinary Deneuve

Film

Jena Sims Net Worth: Beyond Fame and Philanthropy

Celebrity

Jay-Z Claims To Have Lost Out On $200 Million In Amended Defamation Suit Against Tony Buzbee

Celebrity

Anthony Edwards Gives A Post-Game Shoutout To His Daughter Amid Ayesha Howard Drama

Celebrity

Connect