Compliance 2012

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Compliance is one of the toughest sits of the movie year 2012. But it's an uncompromising and, in its way, honorable drama built upon a prank call that goes on and on, getting worse and worse for the people on the other end of the line. Read more

Glenn Kenny, MSN Movies: Compliance ends up being about certain things that it would rather not be about. Read more

Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times: Snapshots of greasy fries and slimy grills pump up the unsavory atmosphere, while Heather McIntosh's ominous, cello-driven score plucks our nerves and stirs our stomachs. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Too condescending to be trusted, too manipulative to be believed, too turgid to be enjoyed, too shameless to be endured and, before and after everything else, too inept to make its misanthropic case. Read more

Soren Anderson, Seattle Times: One watches in horrified fascination, and a greater horror comes when one realizes that, placed in the same kind of situation, one might react in the same way. Read more

James Rocchi, MSN Movies: Compliance is a fascinating and deeply unsettling version of true events, but it goes past that, with art and honesty. Read more

Nathan Rabin, AV Club: It's not just about some woefully misguided fast-food employees: it's about the scared, intimidated and unquestioning follower in all of us. Read more

Noel Murray, AV Club: The cast here is so terrific that they turn a movie that takes place almost entirely in one dingy room into rich theater... Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: This is one insistent film, more evocative of human behavior than movies that take fewer risks ever could be. Read more

Mark Feeney, Boston Globe: There is a level of stupidity displayed by the people in this movie that beggars belief. Their behavior is to stupidity as the Death Star is to a doughnut. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Like a John Hughes movie hijacked by Roman Polanski, this troubling indie effort lays bare the sadomasochism of the American workplace. Read more

Cary Darling, Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com: There's the adage that life is nasty, brutish and short. It's even worse when you're half-naked and locked in a supply room with your boss. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Zobel shoots his queasy little psych test with I'm-just-the-messenger documentary neutrality, challenging as he goes: Do you want to look away now? How about now? Will you walk out? Read more

William Goss, Film.com: A fairly deliberate and effective piece of provocation. Read more

Justin Lowe, Hollywood Reporter: Likely to spur discussions about workplace safety, employee rights and broader awareness of sexual predation, Compliance is also a suspenseful psychological drama for viewers prepared to tolerate its extremes. Read more

Sheri Linden, Los Angeles Times: That the thriller is based on real incidents only magnifies its effect. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: The point of Compliance, which caused walkouts and shouting matches when it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, is how we are programmed to do things that go against our natural instincts as long as we believe we have the law on our side. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: Zobel, a second-time feature filmmaker, has put together a skillful, sympathetic but unsparing re-enactment of a small-scale atrocity, and his cast plays it out with natural, understated performances. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: Watching Compliance recently, I also began to squirm and talk back, but not because I disliked the movie, which I think is brilliant. Read more

Ian Buckwalter, NPR: A wickedly compelling thriller, a skin-crawling, stranger-than-fiction examination of the darkest power of authority. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: [It] has a sharp psychological point and a can't-look-away quality even as it turns horrifically dark. Read more

Farran Smith Nehme, New York Post: It's a highly political work about how some people can be made to do vile things just for the wispiest promise that the powers above will go a little bit easier on them. Read more

Tirdad Derakhshani, Philadelphia Inquirer: A harrowing, gut-wrenching fable about power and authority that shows that even the most well-adjusted, ordinary person could be tempted to degrade and dehumanize their neighbor. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Disturbing and unlikely as it may be, this stuff actually happened, and pretty much as Craig Zobel relates it. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: This is a well-made film, with plausible performances by all the leads, especially Ann Dowd. We feel we know people like this. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Compliance is torture to sit through. It's also indispensable filmmaking. This fact-based movie is going to present you with questions that will haunt you long after you leave the theater. Read more

Amy Biancolli, San Francisco Chronicle: We feel like gutless witnesses to a crime. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: It's a deeply moral movie about the failure of morality, as grueling to watch as it is necessary. Read more

Jim Brunzell III, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Zobel's masterful direction and screenplay heighten the distress of authority figures possessing unseen persuasion over naive employees, exposing a disturbing and haunting look at what some workers are willing to do in order to follow orders. Read more

Calvin Wilson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: A disturbing, fact-based look at the ways in which people can be bullied into bowing to the demands of authority figures. Read more

Christopher Orr, The Atlantic: Ultimately what is fascinating about Compliance is its suggestion of the near-universality, and ultimate mundanity, of the totalitarian reflex. Read more

Adam Litovitz, Globe and Mail: Compliance develops an intriguing premise intelligently, inquisitively and uncomfortably. Read more

Bruce Demara, Toronto Star: Zobel has created a tale that will leave audiences angry if not downright nauseated by journey's end. Read more

Tom Huddleston, Time Out: A riveting, horrifying film, shot through with beautifully observed moments of unwelcome truth. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: The movie's frightening momentum can't be denied; indeed, it's the whole point. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: In taut, gripping and deeply disturbing fashion, writer-director Craig Zobel measures the depths to which rational individuals will sink to obey a self-anointed authority figure in Compliance. Read more

Aaron Hillis, Village Voice: Among the highlights [of BAMcinemaFest]... Provocative! Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: Fails its first test, which is that the audience believe every word of it. Read more