The Platform (2019)

 

Genre: Thriller/Horror           Time: 1h 34mins             Director: Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia


Quick Summary: In the future, prisoners housed in vertical cells watch as inmates in the upper cells are fed while those below starve.


This is a very clever Spanish film that really makes you think about your own habits. 


To start off, this is entirely set in one location and relies on dialogue. Honestly, I like that, it helps us focus on the characters a lot more, although this film was way too fast-paced for that. I feel like not a lot of characters got proper development and became very plain. Another reason I liked this is that it creates a very claustrophobic environment leaving you sightly suffocated.

There is a very clear message portrayed in this, the imbalance of the world's food system. People at the top get to eat, and people at the bottom will either struggle or not eat. 

The dialogue is a bit heavy-handed, constantly feeding the viewer with information. So added to the quick pace of this film is at, it becomes very overwhelming, especially with multiple new characters every 20 mins. Although this film is very interesting, chucking out very moral-provoking situations to show how far a human will go to survive or when will they just simply give up?


I didn't think the cinematography was that impressive, it was a bit basic. Nothing really grabbed my attention that way. The shots where they looked up or down "the hole" were cool, but not amazing. But in its defence, this film had a very small budget so it did what it could. Don't get me wrong it was still immersive and pulled off the claustrophobic atmosphere. 

The ending is very ambiguous, leaving the viewer questioning what had happened. Unfortunately, this film does leave a few plot holes which I was frustrated by as I felt like it spoon-fed you too much information in the wrong places. For such a brutal, raw, bloody display of human behaviour in a situation of survival, the climax feels detached from everything that comes before.

Overall, this is a good film to watch with some interesting themes to think about.

6/10

"Change never happens spontaneously."

"We don't know where we'll be tomorrow."


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