For me, an aspect of the drama which has grown stronger in my mind since writing this review is how, although everything takes place in a seemingly starkly “real” environment, it evokes so much that is “unreal”, that is the pervasiveness of entertainment exploiting our taste for inflicting punishment and judgmentalism which informs the actions and reactions of the characters. Daniels wields a carefully crafted line of patter that seems convincing enough to be on the level and which wields a precise roster of elements to make the characters around Becky to presume she somehow deserves her treatment. Particularly vital are the magic words “stole” and “drugs”, the latter above all, the great shibboleth of modern authoritarianism. These words place these ordinary people in a zone of psychological credulity informed by a lifetime of being pumped full of messages through the media – indeed one possible weakness, or at least missed opportunity, of this film is to coherently describe this supernal yet psychologically important element. Daniels’ speech and the characters’ reactions have all been ingrained by a lifetime of watching cop shows. It seemingly goes well beyond that by the time Daniels convinces a middle-aged man to force a teenaged girl to give him a blow-job, and yet the same principal seems to be at work, except it’s moved from cop shows to porn. The drama still conforms to Daniels’ capacity to appeal to peoples’ wishes that life is a movie and allows parts of themselves long held in check to finally hold sway. This is not to say that I think this boils down to a “the movies and TV are to blame” message, but I think this story helps fill in the missing links which studies like the Milgram experiment still leave. Such experiments were successful because they relied on a lack of information on the behalf of the people engaged to do the pain induction – that part of the mind that goes, is the pain I’m causing is possibly vitally necessary to some necessary experiment? – whereas here Daniels tells his lab rats exactly why he needs and wants them to do things, constantly steering them in the way he wants them to move. Daniels succeeds is because he writes all the characters into a drama in which the script seems pre-ordained; even Becky thinks that every humiliation she receives will inflicted, be it sooner or later. Worthy of more thought, at any rate.

There certainly is the added incentive in this case of misogyny, envy, and sociopathy, but the predisposition to obey authority seems inherent. We can all be shocked by this and other films that show depravity of groupthink. I only wish seeing a film like this would truly change our behavior.

Excellent review, as usual, Rod.