The Circle (2017)

May 3, 2017 11:42 AM

After landing a dream job at a powerful tech company called The Circle, a woman wrestles with whether the firm's 24/7/365 connectivity agenda represents a brave new world in which "Knowing is good, but knowing everything is better" or a horrifying breach of individual autonomy and privacy.
posted by carmicha (5 comments total)

This was bad.

There were strains of ideas that felt reminiscent of Black Mirror or Person of Interest or Truman Show, but just went undeveloped. I also felt like Mae's ascension was largely unearned: I didn't quite get *why* she was willing to be transparent, or how it could make things better.

And what a waste of Karen Gillan's talent too. (Another undeveloped story arc. Why did she go from totally cool and normal to overworked and on the outs? Throwaway expository dialog didn't quite cover it.)

The ending was also a miss.

In short, goodness, so many big names and such a surprisingly bad movie.
posted by hijinx at 7:09 PM on May 11, 2017 [2 favorites]

Do *NO* lawyers work for the Circle at all?

We'll just put surveillance cameras all over and privately monitor them? Let's chase this private citizen down in his car?

I mean, I'm not even after going after the big thornier stuff, just a couple of their surface level proposals.

And what was that ending supposed to even be? "Don't worry, privacy may be dead but we dragged in the bastards who did this, so whatever, enjoy your surveillance state?"
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:31 PM on July 11, 2017

Just watching this on Netflix now because nothing else is on. I'm hating her cultish coworkers (which I'm supposed to, of course), but I think the worst part so far is "Is this about your dad's MS?". I'm surprised the goverment's not coming after them for massive HIPAA violations on top of the antitrust stuff.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 11:45 AM on October 17, 2017

I’m surprised how much I enjoyed watching this movie all the while thinking the plot was completely ridiculous.
posted by P.o.B. at 3:25 AM on December 13, 2017 [1 favorite]

So this is a horror film, right? Mae makes the worst decision possible each time as we're yelling at the screen to not do it?

I went into this expecting a sci-fi social commentary thriller, and it was pretty bad at being that, so "horror film" is all I've got.

(And Karen Gillan was just allergic to wheat and Soylent? I need to stop trying to make sense of this.)
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 6:26 AM on December 13, 2017