Compliance (2012)

Director: Craig Zobel

Writer: Craig Zobel

Starring: Ann Dowd, Dreama Walker, Pat Healy

Rated: R (language, sexual content/nudity)

Well damn…It’s not a horror movie, or a thriller, but I can confidently say that Compliance is the scariest movie I’ve ever seen.

This movie can be summed up in three words: worst prank ever. For those of you who don’t know, and that’s probably many considering this isn’t a very well known film, it takes place over the course of one winter Friday in Ohio at a fast food restaurant. Basically, it’s really busy and the manager, middle-aged Sandra (Ann Dowd), is super stressed. Then, to make matters worse, she receives a phone call from a supposed Officer Daniels (Pat Healy) who explains to her that a customer complained that an employee stole money from her purse. The description matches young cashier, Becky (Dreama Walker), who is then taken to the back and questioned. Now this is a bit of a spoiler – but not really because every little blurb you’ll read about the movie says it – but this Officer isn’t actually an officer. Over the course of the movie, Daniels talks Sandra, and multiple other employees who help with the situation, through the process while he (apparently) searches innocent Becky’s house along with a team of other officers. To sum things up, the investigation and multiple strip searches turn into a horrifying sexual assault.

Now, if you are like me, when a movie is really good you don’t want it to end. Well, this is a good movie you’ll be wanting to end just after twenty minutes of watching it. It is probably one of the best movies I’ve ever seen and certainly most alarming. I’ll start by talking about the first thing I noticed and loved about it: the visuals. What makes this movie so incredible is how it successfully portrays real life and people. There is no over acting or unrealistic dialogue, just raw imagery that embraces the completely ordinary atmosphere. It doesn’t use artsy camerawork or anything like that, it just shows us a collection of images that are so real we feel like we are actually in the restaurant with these people. When we are taken to the back office where Becky is kept for most of the movie, we feel claustrophobic and that we want nothing more to get out of the room – powerful stuff…

 

I mentioned dialogue, which is another thing I wanted to briefly talk about. As I said, it’s very non-theatrical. This leads to the actors and their amazing talent; seeing that they could deliver their simple lines so well shows us that they are extremely talented. They brought their characters to life and made them so incredibly believable which makes the audience really invested in them; the character development is done pretty much completely through dialogue and body language. That’s not easy to do so kudos to Ann Dowd and Dreama Walker (and, like, EVERYONE else in the movie). I mean, think about playing Officer Daniels. When you see the movie, you will, hopefully, feel the strongest feeling of hatred, disgust, and so many other bad things towards him and I just can’t imagine playing such a horrible character. It ain’t like playing Voldemort; this guy is evil. There are points when he laughs at what he’s doing, or chuckles at the victim’s response to something and I think Pat Healy delivered his performance so brilliantly.  

Now for anyone interested in music, I’ll talk briefly about the soundtrack, which was beautifully composed by Heather McIntosh and it’s SO GOOD. The entire score is very heavy on the cello and it is so freaking haunting – yet, only if you know what’s actually going on behind it. It fit so perfectly with what was going on on-screen and added a whole lot to the stress, frustration and overall creep-factor. Not gonna lie, I bought it on iTunes.

Okay, now not everybody who saw this movie knew that this was based on a true story. I mean it said it in the beginning of the film but let’s be honest with ourselves, when we see that we just sort of go, “yeah okay…” But I did a lot of research and was not so happy at all to discover that this movie is, in fact, based on one true event that took place in Mount Washington, Kentucky and the movie was pretty damn accurate. (See the links at the bottom for the complete story). So because people weren’t aware of how accurate this movie actually was, there was a whole lot of controversy. In fact, after the Sundance premiere during a Q&A session with the cast, many people expressed some very negative opinions. One, however, caught my attention. Dreama Walker (Becky) was the first to talk and said, “It’s not meant to be appealing.” (Completely agree). Directly following her comment, one guy had the nerve to shout, “Your body’s pretty appealing!” And then that sparked a whole argument…I don’t know this guy, I don’t know his name or anything, but I'll just say I don't agree with him at all.

Alright, so the film is rated R partially for nudity. Dreama Walker, an attractive young actress, happens to have a nice-looking body. Let me make it clear, because I didn’t before, that this guy’s argument was basically that the nudity was gratuitous and used simply to get more people to watch the movie – something many filmmakers are guilty of doing. But in this case we have to remember that this actually happened and compared to reality, I’m sure they toned it down a lot. Ashlee Atkinson, who played a restaurant worker in the film, retorted with an answer that pretty much sums up how I feel. She said, “So because Dreama’s body is attractive she’s not allowed to portray a victim?” Thank you!  Also might I point out that when we see someone get sexually assaulted, even if it’s on screen, the first thing we notice or think about is not how hot the victim’s body is. In fact, that’s probably, and hopefully, the last thing someone would pay attention to because that’s just messed up. When this actually happened, and there’s footage of it, the victim was not wearing clothing. I don’t think the nudity wasn’t gratuitous, it only portrayed the terrifying truth of what actually happened by not sugar-coating it. She could have been wearing an Eskimo suit – and yeah it would have still been really scary – but seeing it depicted in such a real way made it so frightening that after watching it I, myself, felt exposed and terrified.

Ugh. I respect that guy for standing up for what he believed but I had to go ahead and disagree. I’m not one to judge so please don’t be discouraged when watching this movie to have your own opinion about the nudity or anything else.

To sum things up I thought Compliance was absolutely brilliant and powerful. But you should know, also, that over seventy similar incidents occurred in the United States and I think viewers of the film owe it to all of the victims to get the full true story of what actually happened so here are a few links that offer a more in depth description of the true story of the Mount Washington Scam.

LINKS:

1. YouTube link(Interviews with the actual people): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuH3GYmSjzU

2. Wikipedia page “Mount Washington Scam:” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strip_search_phone_call_scam#The_Mount_Washington_scam

3. YouTube Sundance Q&A Session: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7x46H38Kh

Beginners (2010)

Director: Mike Mills

Writer: Mike Mills

Starring: Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer, Mélanie Laurent

Rated: R (language, some sexual content)

Okay, you should know that I am not one for romance movies, especially romantic comedies. For the most part, they make me cringe with their predictable stories and bland characters. However, there are a handful of “rom coms” that I simply can’t resist and 2010’s Beginners has fallen into that group. This is because it isn’t actually about romance – that plays more as a sub-plot if you may. The movie is mainly about thirty-eight year old Oliver Fields and his relationship with his father, Hal (Christopher Plummer) who has just revealed that he is gay. The film goes back and forth between the past and the present: In the past, his father is alive and fighting stage 4 cancer. In the present, Oliver has met the charming French actress, Anna (Mélanie Laurent) and recounts to her the roles that each of his parents played in his life.

Though perceived by many as a pretentious “hipster film,” I have to disagree. I think this film approached its quirkiness very modestly and in a way as to say, “we’re not trying to be artsy, we’re just doing things a little differently.” By quirky I mean that there are many little details that added to the film’s overall charm. When Oliver and Hal are informed that doctors located a cancerous mass “the size of a quarter” in the bronchoscopy performed on Hal, I had a slight but not strong reaction. While this is serious news, a quarter didn’t sound very large to me. (Then again, I don’t know much about cancer). But then we venture into Oliver’s mind for a quick moment where we see the image of one single quarter, then two dimes and a nickel, then five nickels and eventually twenty-five pennies. Surprisingly this was very effective in pointing out how bad the medical news is.

Another little technique the filmmakers used was to have the majority of Oliver’s narration be over a series of either old photographs or film footage. While most of the film focuses on the before and after of Hal’s death, the movie, at parts, explores even deeper into the past and tells us the story of young Oliver and his mother and even earlier, the story of how his parents got married in 1955. Instead of making the film an “epic” about the two generations, we are given the facts by the “present Oliver” who explains everything we need to know in a very simple narration, accompanied by the photographs and video footage. Here is an example I particularly like and can be found in the trailer: “This is 2003. This is what the sun looks like [picture of the sun] and the stars [picture of the stars] nature [picture of nature]. This is the president [picture of George W. Bush]…” And it goes on from there. Some may hate it, and that’s totally cool, but I think it’s really quite charming.

What I also like about the movie aside from its style is simply how the story is told. I especially like how both the past and present, though clearly separate, are interwoven almost as to hint that – in the least cheesy way possible – Oliver’s parents are still with him.

Also, for those of you out there who would care about this sort of thing, there is a dog. And he’s freaking adorable. Pretty much present in every scene due to his separation anxiety, Arthur the Jack Russell Terrier plays as a silent and very cute companion who seems to always know the right thing to say. (If you see the movie you’ll know what I’m talking about.) It’s possible I may be over thinking this, but when watching Oliver and Arthur, I couldn’t help but think of Oliver and his mother. He’s respected by and holds complete control over the dog without really doing anything at all. Again, if you see or have seen the movie you can decide for yourself if that connection makes sense or not…

Lastly: the performances. Before I end this fairly long and tedious review, I wanted to give credit to the three main stars. Besides the fact that they’re all awesome and physically attractive people, they really brought their characters to life: Ewan McGregor, the sad and quiet Oliver; Mélanie Laurent, the delightful and understanding Anna; and Christopher Plummer, the ill yet life-loving gay man Hal. There was great chemistry between the three of them, which helped make their relationships with each other all the more believable and endearing and the overall film worth watching. It requires a patient audience but if you’re into anything along the lines of Indie, comedy, romance or drama, this is the flick for you!

American Beauty (1999)

Director: Sam Mendes

Writer: Alan Ball

Starring: Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birtch

Rated: R (strong sexuality, language, violence, drug content)

Let me start off by saying that once you see this movie, you'll never look at a plastic bag - or really life -  in the same way again…

Here we are starting off the list with the winner of 1999's Academy Award Best Picture, American Beauty. It is the story of a sexually frustrated and depressed suburban father, Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) attempting to make it through a sort of mid-life crisis while living with his materialistic wife, Carolyn (Annette Bening) and typical, unhappy teenage daughter, Jane (Thora Birtch). 

I think that of all the movies I've ever seen, this one is, by far, the most thought-provoking. It's a dark comedy but addresses all sorts of issues such as abuse, depression and dysfunctional family situations. Beyond these few things, however, the main point of the film is discovering what true beauty is. Lester, who at the beginning of the film, really has no idea, comes to discover that beauty is something we can find anywhere once we "look closer" - the tagline of the film. We watch him over the course of months

as he works at transforming himself, in order to become happy again. 

Oddly enough, what triggers his sudden boost of motivation is his sexual attraction towards a good friend of his daughters, fellow cheerleader, Angela (Mena Suvari), who, aware of his attraction towards her, plays along and admits to Jane that he would be better looking if he simply worked out. Angela is a character desperate for the attention from others, especially men, and worries only too much about conventional appearances, which is interesting as what Lester is leaning towards discovering is that beauty isn't defined by material things such as makeup and clothing. 

Of all characters in the film, I've got to say Ricky Fitts (Wes Bentley) is definitely my favorite. In fact, he could just marry me and life would be complete. Seriously though, he is the character without whom the movie wouldn't be nearly as moving (in my opinion). Though seen as a little weird by his peers with his conservative attire and portable video camera (with which he films pretty much everything), Jane recognizes her new neighbor's sensitive personality and mysterious view of the world. In one of the many scenes the film is famous for, he verbally explains the meaning of true beauty while he shows Jane a fifteen minute video of "the most beautiful thing he ever filmed:" a plastic bag "dancing" in the wind. While it didn't make me cry, this seen left me literally hypnotized. It made me think, wow, maybe the world doesn't suck as much as I thought…And thinking the world sucks is probably a thought every member of the Burnham family practically lived off of. That's why the scene, and the entire film, is so powerful. It has us - or maybe just me - connecting with the characters we see as ignorant and mundane. 

If you haven't seen it, I would definitely recommend it. The acting is incredible and believable, the visuals are beautiful and the story will leave you feeling either empty or full. (If that makes sense…) Also, now this is just some personal advice, but watch it alone. At least the first time. It may sound strange, but...just trust me. Alright, if you're going to watch it with someone else, fine, but watch it before bed or something so you can think about it for hours after, question your life and how you're living it and drive yourself insane. 

Hopefully this was a good first entry and hopefully it convinced whoever is reading it to see American Beauty! Don’t get mad when you find out that I’ve left a significant amount of stuff plot-wise out – I did it on purpose for your own sake!