Netflix for the Poor Kids: Compliance (Confirmed: EH)

Is Compliance truly as disturbing as audiences say?

      One of the most polarizing movies within the film community in recent memory has been Craig Zobel’s Compliance.  While the controversial film has been praised by many critics, it has also alienated some audiences, including several walk-outs and shouting matches during question and answer sessions at last year’s Sundance International Film Festival.  The film has finally made it all the way from Sundance to Nextflix's instant watch.  So, is the film about a real life fast food prank gone too far really worthy of walking out on? Find out after the break…..

Director Craig Zobel and Ann Dowd together promoting their controversial film!

      It doesn't take long to understand why Compliance has received it's fair share of walk-outs and turn-offs.  Unlike many docudramas, Compliance does its due diligence in order to ensure that the events on screen match up almost identically with the true and twisted story this film is based on.  This is where the film really succeeds, because you can’t carry out that level of realism if every actor involved doesn’t know the source material backwards and forwards, which director Craig Zobel ensured throughout the films shooting.  The cast, lead by Ann Dowd and Dreama Walker, will make you truly question the intelligence of fast food employees like never before. (*That's just mean and probably cost us readers.- Editor*)

Compliance truly brings into question the intelligence of your average American fast food employee!

     As you watch the events of Compliance unfold there is no doubt that audiences will ask the question: Are fast food workers so unintelligent that they couldn’t realize a pervert is pulling their strings and not an actual police officer?  Apparently the answer is "No!", because the man known as Officer Daniels (Pat Healy) in this story pulled 70 real life scams similar to this one in at least 30 states.  

Hello, Officer?

      Perhaps Compliance’s only failure is that it is too gritty; I am willing to say even too realistic!  While it is understandable that Craig Zobel wanted to shed light on what was truly a tragedy, why did he have to choose a feature film as his format?  If Zobel truly wanted this story to be as informative as it was, I feel he would have been better served to opt for a straight documentary, maybe even with the actual people involved participating.  Looking at it from a different angle, maybe this film would have been more entertaining if Zobel would have chosen to take some liberties with this story in order to ramp up the watch ability?  In the end, the only thing Compliance is compliant with is being a feature film that suffers from being informative rather than entertaining, resulting in the end for just an OK feature when Compliance had the potential to be a truly great documentary.

CONFIRMED: EH