Compliance

Compliance

Potent, primal

By

Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on July 2013

In this riveting condemnation of mankind’s willingness to defer to those who claim authority (“just following orders”), the matronly manager of a fast-food joint (a spot-on Ann Dowd) gets a call from “Officer Daniels,” who claims a pretty blond employee had stolen money from a customer. She is asked to detain Becky (Dreama Walker), strip-search her, and then, along with others, subject her to increasingly horrific and humiliating acts of abuse. This would all seem contrived if it hadn’t actually happened—several dozen times. A potent, primal film that’s hard to watch and harder to forget.