Speaking of film: El método

I just watched a film called El método, which was pretty weird. Think of a cross between Survivor and The Game, with a little Twelve Angry Men thrown in. The idea is a bunch of job applicants in Madrid are locked in a room together where they undergo various psychological tests until they are winnowed down to the one who will actually receive the job. This method of choosing a job finalist is where the movie gets its name.

On a psychological level, the film calls to mind those studies you read about that attempt to gauge how far ordinary, rational and supposedly moral people are willing to go in order to appease a supposed authority. In this case, how far are corporate drones willing to go in order to climb the ladder in a multinational company? All sorts of moral and social comprises are justified as just a part of the game; as a study of human behavior the film is at times revealing.

This leads to political aspect of the film that I find more troublesome. The whole episode is set against the backdrop of anti-WTO riots in Madrid. While the rioting of the masses shuts down the streets, the job applicants play their mind games far above in their high rise bubble. They are elevated above and alienated from the masses that they exploit, ultimately to be exploited themselves and spit back out. The job applicants are victims of a perverse method that dehumanizes them, a process paralleled by what is happening in the streets below. The film closes with a broken woman walking through the broken streets, both destroyed by multinational corporatism.

So in my view, whatever strengths the film has as a psychological study of human behavior are undercut by the heavy-handed and cliché-ridden message (not to mention a completely gratuitous sex scene). Still, possibly worth checking out.