Compliance
Craig Zobel‘s potent and provocative Compliance is torture to sit through. It’s also indispensable filmmaking. How is that possible? Check it out. The scene is a fast-food restaurant. Sandra (Ann Dowd), the store manager, receives a call from a cop (Pat Healy) who says she needs to help him with an investigation. One of her employees, Becky (an outstanding Dreama Walker), may have stolen money from a customer. Sandra, played by Dowd in a riveting, award-caliber performance, is unnerved when the cop asks her to escalate her questioning into a strip search. And then he asks for even more. Is the voice on the phone the police officer he says he is? Is Sandra right to comply? Director Zobel teases out the answer in scenes of harrowing intensity. I’m not going to say more except that this fact-based movie is going to present you with questions that will haunt you long after you leave the theater. You can’t shake Compliance. That’s the point. Hang on. You’re in for a bumpy ride.