Compliance

Magnolia Pictures | Release Date: August 17, 2012

6.4	USER SCORE Generally favorable reviews based on 84 Ratings

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User Reviews

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matzoballsJan 16, 2013

annoying dialogue moronic script 101% unbelievable
shame on anyone and everyone involved with Compliance
the DVD extras are also pathic
I feel much better now

2 of 2 users found this helpful20

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bearsDec 13, 2012

I am beyond baffled as to why this film is getting any sort of praise. The fact that it is based on actual events is it's only saving grace given the fact that almost everything in this is movie dreadful. A nude teen doing jumping jacks inI am beyond baffled as to why this film is getting any sort of praise. The fact that it is based on actual events is it's only saving grace given the fact that almost everything in this is movie dreadful. A nude teen doing jumping jacks in the back of a fast food chain doesn't make for a intriguing plot, it actually discredits any validity the film was barely hanging onto. Disappointing and weak to say the least..… Expand

3 of 4 users found this helpful31

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berAug 30, 2012

Everything about this movie is dumb. Not least the characters who must share an IQ of 75 between them. Along with the tedious pacing and sub par acting performances i'm at a loss as to why this is so highly rated.

3 of 4 users found this helpful31

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IposFeb 13, 2013

This is the most absurd film ever. I can't believe it has so high score. Even the Americans aren't that dumb, well maybe they are, seeing the score and the reviews.

2 of 3 users found this helpful21

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RicardoCardenasOct 27, 2012

The biggest problem I had with this film was that it felt like a short film being turned into a feature without enough material, and the film runs on empty long before the credits roll. This is like sitting through a student film that keepsThe biggest problem I had with this film was that it felt like a short film being turned into a feature without enough material, and the film runs on empty long before the credits roll. This is like sitting through a student film that keeps running on and on and on and on.
In spite of solid performances, the characters don't feel like real people but rather like creations of a writer with an agenda as his biggest concern: Every character in this movie is expendable to the situation of a prank call gone to the point of sexual assault. The intelligence of the characters was something that bothered me, but what bothered me even more was the notion of a writer not endowing his/her characters with any common sense whatsoever. As a consequence every scene felt like a false note. I am at a loss why some critics have called it tense. Tension would have been good, but I guess that would have required for the writer to care about his/her characters. Finally, I don't think that a movie being based on actual events excuses it from having a bad script. And the script for Compliance is bad. Everything in the movie crumbles because of it.… Expand

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

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luke_richardsonFeb 25, 2013

Compliance is just about one of the most abhorrent films I've ever seen.

In 2007, there were 70 exceptional cases were reported across to the American Police department. While they all had their own, unsettling idiosyncrasies, they wereCompliance is just about one of the most abhorrent films I've ever seen.

In 2007, there were 70 exceptional cases were reported across to the American Police department. While they all had their own, unsettling idiosyncrasies, they were all loosely connected by subterfuge and prank calls. This is no Steve Penk or The Jerky Boys, but real vile cases of human maltreatment.

It's an extraordinary topic that is crying out to be debunked in an explorative, Errol Morris style documentary. Compliance isn't that film.

Writer/director Craig Zobel decides to focus this seeming pandemic on one exceptional example, based on a mélange of different real cases to make one mega-horrific fictional one. It's just another regular day at an Ohio fast food chain, until a meticulous prank caller convinces the restaurant manager (Ann Dowd) that one of her employees Becky, Gossip Girl's Dreama Walker, is being accused of stealing from a customer. What proceeds is a manipulating interrogation, where everyone idly agrees to whatever increasingly insane task the caller will have them do. Why? Without proving any of his credentials, the prank caller deceives everyone involved into believing that he is a police officer, and thus establishing his unobjectionable authority. By Compliance's nasty end, Becky is naked, humiliated, and sexually violated, and the audience are accomplices; watching on through guarded eyes and clenched fists.

Even though the story comes from a bastardised real place, Zobel really pushes the boundaries of plausibility. Not in a "stranger than fiction" way, but rather because the characterisation, narrative, and Zobel's misguided compulsion to tell it, is shallow. The ninety minute running time lingers for what feels like days and, whilst the repetitious sequences are relatively tame and implicit, it all feels incredibly ugly and exploitative; as if Zobel is forcing the audience to watch a security camera.

At it's most tenuous, one could wring-out a slapdash argument that the film is forcing the audience to look at this injustice like a reflexive meta-narrative, like Haneke's Funny Games. Unlike the unflinchingly austere Austrian, Zobel lacks directorial flare and balls to actually critique or comment on the true events and populace servility to the law.

Even when the film was snapped up at the Sundance Film Festival last year, it was met with notoriety, with walkouts and boos. Later, in a public Q&A, Zobel plainly admitted that the film is misogynistic. But for what reason? Zobel is trying to be forthright and polemical with Compliance, but simply projecting these images isn't enough to warrant a political license. An artless, meaningless, pseudo-video nasty that doesn't earn the discomfort it will leave you with.

My full review, and other things, right here:
www.theframeloop.com… Expand

0 of 2 users found this helpful02

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CptKiffManAug 26, 2016

Great portrait of the sheer stupidity in our society. Greatly reflected by metacritic scores. Incredible that there is really such a dumb manager out there

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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IcefyreJul 4, 2021

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Compliance is the worst movie I have ever seen in my whole life. Though the movie is based on real life events, the actors and situations that occur don't seem to be very realistic. The one good thing about this movie is that it provides some form of awareness, but now that I am aware, I am just upset that people are stupid. I don't know if the script was the problem or if it's everyday life human beings just being humans, but something in this movie just really pissed me the hell off. Officer Daniels, a fake police officer who is the antagonist pulling the 'prank phone call turns to sexual assault' thing, is not charming enough, at all. As a viewer, I'd like to feel that I can also trust this guy but it was so obvious to me that he was fake that I just couldn't see how these people couldn't. It is nice that we got to see that this is just an everyday man with a kid, but he really just... wasn't that great. He sounded confident, but people can sound confident and stupid. He was clearly stupid. I don't know how anybody in their right mind could ever believe he was a cop. This was the worst example ever and he is the worst fake cop I have ever seen. Anyone with half a brain could have known that this loser wasn't a cop, just by the way he spoke and the words he used. It was so bad. The worst, actually. The absolute worst. It was a disaster. It literally ruined my night and my perception on movies that are based on true stories. Rebecca, or Becky, was the fast food worker who was the main victim to "Officer Daniel's" assaults. However, she is also not the brightest. She does not know how the law works, and Sandra, do not get me started on Sandra. Sandra was such an unrealistic manager, you'd think that managers would have at least some sort of common sense but nope. Sandra, even though she may be stressed, is still the manager and was given this job for a reason. This wouldn't be the first time that they have a lot of people, so she should be used to that stress. On top of the stress of handling a police officer, she should have noticed. She really should have. Especially since the movie states that a police station is a half mile away and Officer Daniels just doesn't show up. Sandra is a silly goose, a little silly in the head. Rebecca, on the other hand, is more believable with two authority figures and the fact she really didn't want to lose her job since she had a reason for wanting it. Harold, a respectable man who showed up right at the end, was smart enough to just not listen to "Officer Daniels," which really made me question Sandra even more. Van, was watching over Sandra before Harold came, and it's insinuated that he's a little drunk and that he sexually assaulted her. This would be believable too but Sandra really shouldn't have let it get to this point in the first place. I don't think I have ever once in my short life known a strip search to happen without an actual police officer in sight, especially if the crime was so important as "Officer Daniels" tried to make it out to be. The witness that Officer Daniels brought up or the surveillance team, why did it not go through anybody's mind to just ask the simple question of, "HEY??? HEY BUDDY OFFICER DANIELS WHO WAS THE LADY? CAN WE TALK TO HER? HOW MUCH MONEY? WHAT WAS THE COLOR OF THE PURSE? I THINK THE REGIONAL MANAGER WOULD LET US KNOW SOONER IF THERE WAS A SURVEILLANCE TEAM??" Sorry for the capitalization. When Sandra called the regional manager around the end and we figured out that he was never in the call with "Officer Daniels," like, why didn't they do that in the first place? It just makes this movie very detestable and very unrealistic. Needless to say, this is the worst movie I have ever seen in my whole life and what makes it worse is that it's based on a true story. I don't think half of what I said could even briefly describe how much hate I have for this movie.

After reading a quick review by TylerDsCreation, I have decided that this movie may not be as simple as I thought. "Officer Daniels" is truly a sick man and I didn't truly realize until TylerDsCreation pointed it out, that he really was causing confusion. When people are confused or panicked, they don't think straight and get tunnel vision which I'm assuming is why they complied so easily. However, this does not safe the movie from being a complete failure to accurately show the true events of the truly traumatic things that happen in the real world which make people think that it's just stupid. If they had done better, I wouldn't have needed to read a review to convince me these people were brainless idiots. It's a bad movie.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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ChulisJan 7, 2022

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I understand bringing awareness to things but like, this situation alone when hearing about it was so degrading, and horrific, and unsettling. There is original video and audio that there was no need to shoot an entertainment film for profit if the victim isn't the producer. Y'all should've put the incident information in the beginning so people understand that it's real. The actors get the points here. No one needs to sit through 94 minutes of this incident. The nudity was unnecessary. I'm already cringing at the fact that a manager, responsible for all employees, ALLOWED and ABIDED by these inappropriate requests. In what world? Just throw the whole thing away. Garbage.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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