Platform (2019)
Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2020 5:11 am
Platform takes place in a vertically-stacked prison, 200+ floors deep, with one cell per floor holding two "prisoners", some of whom are there voluntarily.
The titular (heh) platform is a large slab which descends through the floors once a day. It holds a vast array of meticulously prepared gourmet food, and stops at each level for a few minutes, where the cellmates may eat as much as they want during that time, but may not keep any. There is ostensibly enough food to feed everyone, if everyone only took what they needed. Naturally, they do not. The upper floors gorge themselves, while further down, there will be nothing left. Of course, with two to a cell, there's always something to eat.
The social allegory is not subtle here.
One other twist -- every 30 days, everyone is reshuffled onto other floors, seemingly at random. You may wake up one month to find yourself on level 12, ready to fill your belly to bursting... or on 182, where hard decisions are going to have to be made.
The premise here is good enough to carry a worse film, but first-time Spanish director Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia does the material proud, and brings enough depth (heh) and tension to what is essentially a film set in one virtually featureless room, that even after a strangely satisfying yet elliptical ending, I was...
...
....
.....
...hungry for more!
3.5 half-eaten turkey legs out of 4.
The titular (heh) platform is a large slab which descends through the floors once a day. It holds a vast array of meticulously prepared gourmet food, and stops at each level for a few minutes, where the cellmates may eat as much as they want during that time, but may not keep any. There is ostensibly enough food to feed everyone, if everyone only took what they needed. Naturally, they do not. The upper floors gorge themselves, while further down, there will be nothing left. Of course, with two to a cell, there's always something to eat.
The social allegory is not subtle here.
One other twist -- every 30 days, everyone is reshuffled onto other floors, seemingly at random. You may wake up one month to find yourself on level 12, ready to fill your belly to bursting... or on 182, where hard decisions are going to have to be made.
The premise here is good enough to carry a worse film, but first-time Spanish director Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia does the material proud, and brings enough depth (heh) and tension to what is essentially a film set in one virtually featureless room, that even after a strangely satisfying yet elliptical ending, I was...
...
....
.....
...hungry for more!
3.5 half-eaten turkey legs out of 4.
