COMPLIANCE

As a company relations rep for the tech startup and homestay hotel brand UVisit, Sam closes all of the indemnifying loops when something goes wrong... a job she performs with increasing exhaustion and disillusionment. She has uprooted her life to LA to kick heartbreak and a drinking habit, only to find herself investigating a sexual assault case that could land her employer in hot water and further dissolve her conscience.

Some of you may be reading this from a beautifully printed guide, pages earmarked with your most anticipated titles of this year’s festival. I’m willing to bet more of you are reading this scrolling on your phone, toggling between this movie and other equally wonderful options in your screening block. I bet that, for an extra few bucks to our vendor, we could track each swipe or click and then use that data to inform some sort of nefarious decision.

That’s because, of course, surveillance and conspiracy are central tenets of contemporary digital life—all of the data captured by all of the various entities and agencies feels illusory until it falls under their control, or becomes an issue of liability.

This is as good a space as any to note that COMPLIANCE deals with brutal and thorny issues of consent and complicity, fueled by the shifting visual perspectives that modern screen life offers—computer screens, wearables, and cameras hidden from view. Such a complex visual and emotional schema gives way to a dark web (and Dark Web!) of power, corruption, and lies. COMPLIANCE is the feel-bad movie of the fest, or at least, one of twelve. Don’t say we didn’t warn you! (JAKE ISGAR)