FILM REVIEW: COMPLIANCE

A scene from Compliance.

 

T-bag work, force

By Don Simpson

During the opening scene of writer-director Craig Zobel's Compliance, an irritated delivery man (Matt Servitto) exclaims to Sandra (Ann Dowd), the manager of ChickWich, "You are fucked without bacon!" You see, a freezer door was accidentally left open overnight and most of ChickWich's supplies have gone rancid. Luckily Sandra was able to get a rush delivery to replace most of the spoiled ingredients before their lunch rush, but can ChickWich survive an entire business day without the ingredients that could not be replaced, such as bacon and pickles?

The worries of a bacon-less and pickle-less day at Chickwich quickly dissolve into the ether when Sandra receives a phone call from Officer Daniels (Pat Healy) informing her that one of her employees -- a cute, 19-year-old blonde named Becky (Dreama Walker) -- is in a pickle of her own. You see, Becky has been fingered by a recent ChickWich customer as a thief. (It must be Monday, because crappy days like this one only happen on Mondays, right?) Until Officer Daniels and his team can get to ChickWich to apprehend the suspect, it is Sandra's appointed responsibility to keep Becky locked up in the back room. From this point on, the disembodied voice of Officer Daniels proceeds to conduct an interrogation of Becky by masterfully puppeteering the employees of ChickWich. Transferring his authority as a police officer to various fast food civilians, Officer Daniels utilizes the persuasive power of his position to get precisely what he needs out of Becky.

Compliance is an intriguing conversation starter on the manipulative power and control of authority figures. For all the Chickwich staff knows, Officer Daniels is just a voice on the other end of the telephone line barking orders at them; yet, never once does Sandra or any of her staff attempt to verify Officer Daniels' credentials. It seems pretty ridiculous, huh? Of course most of us probably believe that we would just say no if we found ourselves in this situation...but how many of us would actually question a police officer's judgment or motives? When given permission by an authority figure, how many of us would take full advantage of our newly found power? Then, there are the gender dynamics of power struggles... Would a male who is placed in a position of power treat an attractive young woman differently than a female would in the same position of power? On the flip-side of things, what about Becky's personal freedoms? Is it not Becky's prerogative to be considered innocent until proven guilty in court?

Besides guaranteeing some very heated post-screening debates on human psychology, Compliance serves up some really tasty acting performances. Dowd is masterfully conflicted and confused as Sandra, so much so that seems like it might be a bit too heavy-handed for Zobel to drown Sandra in such a shit storm of a day. Did Sandra really need to begin the day with the freezer snafu while simultaneously stressing over the possibility of a mystery shopper visiting her location? It is as if her horrendous day is intended to give Sandra an excuse for her behavior; because of all of the stress she is under, Sandra is obviously not thinking clearly. The same goes for Sandra's boyfriend. Van (Bill Camp), who is heard early on in the film asking Sandra for permission to go out drinking with his buddies. Even Sandra voices her opinion that Van's phone call is unnecessary, but again it is deemed necessary for the audience to understand that Van is drunk when he shows up at ChickWich later that evening. Van is therefore given an excuse for his behavior -- his inhibitions are lowered. These two characters raise questions regarding the effects of stress and alcohol (or drugs) on situations such as the one we find in Compliance. What would have happened if Sandra was having a great day when Officer Daniels called Chickwich? Would she have been able to think through the situation more clearly and logically?

I am not going to point out that Becky is too naturally beautiful to be a cashier for a fast food chain as that would be incredibly condescending to fast food workers, who are already working in some of the most thankless (and underpaid) jobs in the whole US of A. Gross over-generalizations regarding their physical appearance would be in very poor taste. As for Becky being the most attractive worker at this particular ChickWich location -- well, I believe that is exactly why she is targeted. (Of course, this depends heavily upon whether or not you believe the predator stalked out the ChickWich location beforehand. I believe that he did.) Besides, something I really appreciate about Zobel's approach to filming Becky is that he never exploits her, even though he has countless opportunities to do just that. In fact, by his choice of camera angles and framing, it is abundantly clear that Zobel is purposefully avoiding any overt sexualization of the situation. It also helps that Walker handles her character with a great deal of restraint. In Walker's hands, Becky comes off as the most realistic character in Compliance.

Healy is pitch-perfect as the disembodied voice of Officer Daniels, so I would have preferred if Zobel kept his identity concealed until much later in the narrative. By showing us Officer Daniels when he does, Zobel totally changes the tone of the story from a true crime thriller to a demented psychological study. For me, this narrative tactic definitely lessens the thrill of it all; but again, this is something that will probably be debated among cinema-goers post-Compliance.

SXSW 2011: 13 ASSASSINS

A scene from 13 Assassins.

Sword to disobey

By Don Simpson

13 Assassins, Takashi Miike's remake of the 1963 Eiichi Kudo film, takes place in Japan during mid-19th century. The Shogunate has known peace for many years and the Samurai have grown soft and lazy in their inactivity. Something has got to change.

The sadistically inclined Lord Naritsugu Matsudaira (Gorô Inagaki) is on the fast track to power in the Shogunate. His penchant for killing and raping innocent civilians for sheer entertainment value has forced the hand of the noble advisor to the Shogun, Sir Doi (Mikijiro Hira), to plan Lord Naritsugu’s assassination. Doi promptly recruits one of the last true samurai, Shinzaemon Shimada (Kôji Yakusho), to establish a team for this very risky mission.

The first act of 13 Assassins focuses on Shinzaemon gathering his team. He scours the land for the few remaining competent and trustworthy samurai with a few less competent, but very dedicated and trustworthy ones, nonetheless, thrown in for good measure. Eventually Shinzaemon finds twelve samurai who are willing to risk their life in order to participate in Lord Naritsugu’s demise. Later, one non-samurai, Koyata (Yûsuke Iseya), joins the fold along their journey, bringing the total to 13. 

Soon Shinzaemon finds himself face-to-face with Naritsugu's lead samurai, Hanbei Kitou (Masachika Ichimura), Shinzaemon’s old rival from training school, now his nemesis, and the "chess" match begins. Shinzaemon’s small group of samurai prepare to battle Hanbei’s samurai army of hundreds. Facing impossible odds, Shinzaemon is forced to go all in with a high risk gamble. The thirteen assassins choose a small town to fortify with the hope that strategic preparation will somehow even out the odds.

As the third act commences, so does the drawn-sword-out slaughter fest. Surprisingly, the blood and violence never becomes gratuitous; if anything, Miike restrains himself in an effort to make a profound statement about the senselessness of war. As Lord Naritsugu revels in the bloody mayhem, his army blindly follows him. Miike skillfully highlights the moral dilemma of the film’s samurai -- they must weigh obedience against justice. The battle is between the blindly obedient and the morally just. The morally just are backed into a corner; with the future of Japan at stake, they are forced to kill their foes in defense of their country.

Since we are talking about a group of samurai hired to be heroes, it is only natural 13 Assassins remind anyone who has seen Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai of that epic film in which samurai are hired to protect a village from bandits.

The Koyata character offers a hefty dash of Kurosawa-esque comic relief and besides the narrative trope of recruiting heroes into a team for a mission, Miike also co-opts Kurosawa’s anti-war stance. 13 Assassins is an unexpectedly mature and profound film for the incredibly prolific Miike and, truth be told, I never thought I would compare Kurosawa with Miike. They have both traditionally been polar opposites for me: Kurosawa the formal master and Miike the guilty pleasure. Suddenly, with 13 Assassins, the two worlds have collided. 13 Assassins is dramatically more violent than anything Kurosawa ever created yet 13 Assassins could very well be a remake of Seven Samurai.