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randall 
"I like to watch."
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 Posted - 02/06/2013 : 20:01:23
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I missed this one at Sundance 2012 and thought it a shame, because I heard there were not only walkouts, but also actual booing when the director and stars took the stage for a q&a. This, I said, I gotta see!
What twisted everyone's knickers was a naturalistic portrayal of a sadistic hoax perpetrated on the hapless denizens of a fast-food restaurant. A man claiming to be a police officer phones the restaurant and says he's investigating a robbery by a young counter girl. We've already seen that the decent but harried middle-aged manager is under tremendous pressure: an open freezer ruined her inventory and this will be one of the busiest days of the week. She takes the accused girl into the back and the "cop," using faultless social engineering skills, first achieves a search, then a strip search, and his requests do not stop there. [No spoiler alert because early on we cut to the caller, and we know that he's lying.]
What makes people squirm is the ease with which a talented pervert can cloud the minds of well-meaning people, just by virtue of his "authority." I'd never fall for that, everyone seems to tell themselves. Oh yeah? A card at the end says there have been seventy similar hoaxes actually reported.
The actors, all unknowns, show you every inch of agony, as they first give the caller a normal response, then inevitably submit to his brutal mixture of call-to-duty and intimidation. [He's both the good cop and the bad cop.] When a final, awful transgression is achieved, the look on the actor's face shows you a person in shock; the individual is numb but also wracked with obvious guilt. This can also upset the audience, since after all, we've been sitting there watching too. [There is brief, partial nudity, but this film is not prurient in the slightest; there is no titillation whatsoever and no graphic depiction of violence.] Only two characters flat-out refuse to comply; the rest all have their doubts, but this guy simply wears them down.
It's tough to watch, but so is a great deal of legitimate, provocative art. If you're curious as to what could make members of a festival audience actively boo [you don't even have to go to Cannes!], then this is your rental. |
Edited by - randall on 02/07/2013 13:36:21 |
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Compliance
