Opening today, indie film, Compliance is generating buzz for possibly being one of the most disturbing, but telling films ever made. It is so deeply unsettling, The Huffington Post reports that during a screening at least ten women, one of which yelled “Give me a f*cking break” at the screen, walked out.
The screening was put together by Psychology Today, which should tell you something. If nothing else, this movie plans to get deep inside your head. It’s being billed as a psychological thriller that you won’t forget and will have you asking questions that at first blush seem facile, but when you dig deeper and really think about all the variables, makes one wonder how close to reality it could truthfully be.
What makes it even more confounding is that the movie, set in a documentary style, is based on true events.
In the decade leading up to 2004, more than 70 cases were reported of a man, pretending to be a police officer or some other authority figure, who called a fast-food restaurant and requested strip searches of employees. Each incident shared a similar pattern: The purported officer claimed to need help to solve a case, which required a manager to remove a female employee’s clothing and, in some cases, perform sexual acts on her.
Dreama Walker, best known for co-starring in ABC’s Don’t Trust the B– in Apartment 23, stars as Becky, a fast food employee who’s accused of stealing from a customer. Ann Dowd plays her manager who has to make a decision whether or not to believe the man on the phone pretending to be a police officer is authentic and if what he asks her to do is justifiable, or if it is simply about compliance and going on auto-pilot, in that non-hostile, non-confrontational, “just doing my job as a good citizen” way. Dowd here is said to give a brilliant performance.
The interesting thing about it all is the audience’s reaction. Many who were asked their feelings in a panel following the screening said that there’s no way they’d had fallen for it. Interestingly, in the ensuing conversation the reasoning for why someone would ran the gamut from intelligence level, and IQ, to a class system that views fast food employees in a certain light, to the motives of the caller himself and why he would pick such a “vulnerable” institution in our society with “vulnerable” people involved.
What is probably most telling is that when studied, the findings indicate that 65 percent of willing participants would follow through on things they’ve said they’d never do, and it may shock some how few of us have the resources needed to resist authority. The Sandusky trial being a prime example.
The movie is bound to continue to raise possibly uncomfortable questions about what we feel we have the agency to disagree with, and what level of compliance we offer in situations where we feel powerless.
Read Huffpo’s entire article, and put Compliance on your indie list. Love it or hate it, it’s already said to be one of the most polarizing things you’ll witness.
