After hovering among patron submissions and even the occasional runoff poll for a year and a half, nearly since I began soliciting topics for the Films in Focus podcast, Craig Zobel's 2012 psychological thriller Compliance was finally chosen as this month's topic for the top tier. The film is a fascinating but maddening, harrowing, and punishing watch, with the fact that it is based on a true story both its saving grace (the movie would play as an implausible conceit otherwise) and its most excruciating aspect. With names but little else changed - aside from a few notable and probably legally required exceptions, like the identity of the caller and the fast food chain - Compliance follows a day at the ChickWich restaurant where manager Sandra Frum (Ann Dowd) receives a call from someone identifying himself as Officer Daniels (Pat Healy) who requests that she bring cashier Becky (Dreama Walker) to the enclosed back room. Apparently Becky has been accused of a minor theft, but the stakes escalate as hours pass and further demands are made by an authority figure who, it seems, almost everyone at the location feels compelled to comply with. In addition to the underlying situation being so unsettling, I do have some frustrations with and questions about the director's decisions within the small wiggle room he gives himself to deviate from, elaborate on, or interpret the documented record. For the most part, however, I found Compliance a well-done yet infuriating artifact, which gave me plenty to discuss on the episode.
For the first time since January, I advanced an entry in the TWIN PEAKS Character Series - in this case cracking the top ten. This month's other feature was a poll for November's topic, after which I am considering a break from this approach in order to get some long-term projects done. This decision, however, will depend in large part on what I'm able to accomplish behind-the-scenes this fall, some of which (as I'm writing this in early September) is already well underway by the time you are reading this on September 30 or later (definitely later, as it turns out). As I always say, stay tuned.
What is the exclusive September reward?