hyeristorm’s review published on Letterboxd:
🎂🎉 Happy Birthday @Cubianer!!
To celebrate, it was either a sci-horror or a movie from Jonah’s excellent Confined Space list here. So I chose a movie I hadn’t seen yet from the list: The Platform.
The Platform is a high-concept movie. It’s a modern parable about the follies of capitalism through the power of food. A solid psychological thriller with surprising moments of high-octane action sequences. This would make a hungry-horror double feature with The Menu. Although one with food that would make a little more nauseous than the other!
A glorious table of meals is lowered down “the hole,” free for all to feast away. Of course, this being a psychological horror, what does hunger drive people to do? Or to be? Think about the hangry memes. How one is silent without being fed. Stomach grumbles turn to grumps. Crank up all these feelings to 110% in a confined space, and all depraved chaos ensues.
I have never been this disgusted at how these people eat. The piles of food stacking up like garbage, to see people rummaging through. These are unpleasant scenes, where food is not a feast for the eyes. There is no enjoyment when hunger is felt in the most primal form. It’s a signal for us to seek subsistence, to survive. When your ONE meal is timed, what extreme lengths would you go to, to feed yourself? I have to applaud it for its lavish shots of food. One man’s trash is another one’s feed.
There are three types of person:
Those at the top, those at the bottom and those that fall.
However, The Platform is a little more than a gruel-fuelled, nightmarish mukbang. Buried under food excess, scraps, and dishes is a social metaphor. It’s a lottery which level the inhabitants will be placed. As luck will have it, they’ll be gorging like gods or praying for a bone. The philosophical moments are sprinkled throughout, either as gleeful little details like what item the characters brought with them or musings about a revolution. Or lack of. Is this all rather hopeless, to be placed in such nihilistic stratification?
Each character has their own theological position, survival plans, and cruelty. Ivan Massagué’s Goreng was an excellent lead and becomes the audience’s eyes for comprehending what this facility is. What could’ve been boring, seeing people slurp food off a slab, is renewed every quarter where Goreng meets someone new. Although his arc is interesting, it’s Zorion Eguileor’s utterly unhinged Trimagasi that’s truly memorable.
Unfortunately, I’ve left a little unsure of the man-eating directions it heads into, as it hampers a little of its social messaging. Perhaps it’s on the nose, but there was a darkly comedic scene where the lower echelon is literally SHAT on. I love the the terribly dark humour! Alternatively, it makes for a great, gruesome watch, so really whichever takes your fancy the most! It may not be new in terms of its social reflections and “vertical Snowpiercer” comparisons, but it’s certainly an uneasy thrill ride.
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🧤 Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
🎂 @Taylor Leverage w/ Tampopo
☃️ 2024 December Watches
