BIFF Fri-day night, creepy night

Movies #4 and #5 were on tonight and I must say I inadvertently picked a very complementary double bill of movies, both taking a look at the impact on others of people with sick and twisted minds.

First up was 'Sound of my Voice' which is the latest film co-written and starring Brit Marling (from last year's great drama 'Another Earth').  I think this girl is going to be a big star in the near future, particularly for her ability to write unique, small dramas with a little dose of sci-fi.  The movie opens with 2 people being admitted to a cult, who we soon find out are actually a film-maker couple who are out to bring down the cult leader from the inside.  The cult leader is Maggie (Brit Marling) who claims to be from the future and has come back to help lead people (read: true believers) to a safe place to avoid the never-explained apocalypse that will occur.  What follows is an interesting exploration of how even the most sceptical person can have their views changed by charismatic people, even ones like Maggie who offer little evidence and what they do offer is ridiculous - a funny scene where Maggie sings 'a song from the future' but it turns out to be Dreams by the Cranberries.  The movie unfortunately raises more questions than it answers in the conclusion, but it was an interesting little film nonetheless.

It definitely made a good segue into the next movie, 'Compliance'.  It was set almost entirely within a fast food joint called Chickwich (mmmmmm chicken sandwich) on a very busy day when the store was low on bacon and pickles and they knew they had a shadow shopper franchise quality control person possibly visiting.  The manager receives a phone call after lunch from a police officer advising her that he has a victim who has reported having $1,500 stolen out of her wallet by a counter employeed, plus several witnesses.  He's too busy to come down to the store right now to interview the girl, so he asks the store manager to follow his instructions.  The girl, Becky, denies taking the money, saying it's not even possible.  So they check the girl's pockets and purse to try to find the money.  When that reveals nothing and still protests innocence, the police officer tells them they have to stripsearch her.  Both parties are reluctant but the police officer talks to Becky and convinces her to cooperate so it will be over sooner, which she ultimately does and the stripsearch occurs.  Still they find nothing.  The girl must then be detained and her clothes left out in the manager's car for the police to search properly.  Oh, and a male employee must be used to stand guard over her since the manager has to go back out to the store.... The demands become increasingly creepy and while all the various employees and relatives who become involved over the space of an afternoon and evening seem reluctant and suspicious at first, for some reason they comply with this disembodied voice' instructions and things escalate quite far.

Now here's where you might be thinking - why didn't they realise it's not a real cop and just hang up?  And I agree, I felt the same way. But the thing is that you don't really know how you'd react unless it really happened to you.  You would definitely like to think that you would be suspicious, you'd ask for a number to call back to prove it really is a policeman and not a prank call, you would just refuse to do the things you're asked.  And if you're Becky, you like to think that you would firmly resist what happens, scream, yell, run away.  And the catch with this movie is that is is based on true events that occurred in America.  And not just in one store, once.  Apparently this heinous, malicious, sick individual got 70 people in America to believe him, to the point at least of stripsearching their employees - there were 70 reported cases of similar incidents. 

The movie really speaks to the fact that most of us want to believe that we are good people, we follow the rules and laws and want to be seen as helpful and good.  We don't want to be seen as not co-operating with the police. That there are some people out there who can smooth talk people into doing otherwise unthinkable things, who have an answer for everything you throw at them and know just what to say and when.  Think about it, you probably know one.   I'm sure I wouldn't have done any of those things, but after deep reflection I think I might only be 95% sure, there might be a small chance I could have been convinced.  How many times have we given out info over the phone without really checking that the person who's called us really is from that legitimate place needing to confirm our details?  This is a lot further than that scenario, but unless it happens to you, do you know that you would do the right thing?  A good cautionary tale, a little confronting to watch at times (certainly not worth of the walkouts that are being used to 'hype' the movie though) and not a fun night out.  Thought provoking indeed.