em-lundberg I enjoyed the movie, wich had a good, basic idea, but did not really come through. I liked how it all played out in one scene, just like Buried and 127 hours. But what lowered the score was the easy solution too why they where trapped, and how some characters for no obvious could be alive for so long. It's like the writers had a really good idea, but missed some importent points and lost their way around the ending. But it was worth watching a lazy sunday when you have nothing else to do.

Samuel Lickiss Let's first of all say that this isn't the sort of film I'd ordinarily watch, and I started watching it by accident after searching Netflix for 'The Circle', which a friend had recommended to me, starring Emma Watson, Tom Hanks, Karen Gillan among other well-known actors. 'Circle', however, contains no one famous. It became obvious pretty quickly that I was watching the wrong film, but something about it kept me interested. For all intents and purposes, it looks like a horror, which I don't usually like, but it's not remotely scary and is better described as a psychological thriller. It's not really that either - there's no action. In fact, the entire cast spend the entire film standing in a circle (and around in a circle) until they get killed off, whereby they disappear. Their deaths come at the hands of a mysterious orb thing in the middle of said circle that zaps them and they collapse. Not gruesome or gratuitous at all.The best way I can describe is a combination of 'Waiting for Godot' meets the quiz show 'The Weakest Link'. Consequently, it defies easy categorisation, but it wastes no time in establishing the theme that lasts for the whole film: a group of fifty men and women (and children) from all different walks of life wake up to find themselves in a circle faced with a machine that will kill one of them every two minutes. The twist? They get to anonymously vote for who gets killed. I know from having done a fair amount of amateur dramatics that one of the hardest things is being on stage without any lines. It's easy to act when you've got something to say and people to interact with, but just standing there having to react to everything while getting little to do yourself is hard. It's a credit to this cast, the majority of whom are completely unknown, that they all put in solid performances. Few characters get much more than a handful of lines each, and several get none at all, yet each of them feels like a real person with their own history and personality approaching their predicament in their own way. As the characters figure out how the weird death chamber operates, leaders, and later factions, gradually emerge and facilitate discussion among them. How should they decide who gets killed next? One character proposes that the old people should go first - they've already lived their life - while others vehemently disagree: why are their lives less valuable? Another character notices that many of the people who get killed off early are black; others accuse them of 'playing the race card'. The film, ultimately, is a discussion on how we value life. Is it possible to quantify the value of life? Is a pregnant woman really more valuable than a childless person; couples more valuable than singles; white-collar workers more valuable than blue-collar workers; children or the elderly? It's a topical film when we as a planet are facing chronic overpopulation and resource shortages. Debates around euthanasia, for example, often bring up the slippery slope: if an old person gets sick, isn't it just easier to kill them ('euthanasia') rather than invest time, effort and money into caring for them? It thinks it's cleverer than it actually is. While some of these moral discussions are given sophisticated, intelligent treatment, others, such as a conversation around race, are clunky and feel shoehorned. Also, the fact there are only two minutes between each death means there's little depth and dialogue exchanges are vanishingly brief. Nevertheless, it's a film that I found myself thinking about: what would I do in their situation? How would I play it? I think most people watching it will find themselves siding and associating with particular characters quite quickly, whether they would admit it or not. It's a great film for starting discussions. I watched it with a few friends and we spent quite a long time talking about this, and while the film itself may not be overly deep, you can build on that in your own time. It's not perfect: the ending leaves a lot to be desired (though could set up a sequel), some deaths feel completely random with little rhyme or reason (like the script writers couldn't think of one), and because the film attempts to cover just about every facet of society it does feel a little thin rather than focusing on one or two topical issues. The bottom line is I found myself really engaged in 'Circle'. It's a great example of what filmmakers can achieve with limited budgets. 'Circle' features one set, but it's brilliantly designed - striking and sinister. The sound design is equally ominous and adds to the chilling atmosphere. The camerawork and editing is good, and the directors have done a great job with the cast. The last film I watched on Netflix was 'Stasis', which was a painful mess from start to finish, so 'Circle' was a welcome and refreshing change.

RenaeBanae First of, this review contains small, unnecessary spoilers, but nothing that will ruin the movie for you.When I first saw this movie, I was surprised about how good it is. It doesn't have a well know cast, and the premise is kinda weird. But the acting was actually pretty good, the characters (the one's that doesn't die right away) is well written and believable. But that said, it's certainly not a movie for everyone. There's barely any action, it's 99% dialog, which some might find annoying, and that's what makes it good. It doesn't try to appeal to the casual watchers, but works more like a movie to make you think. The movie deals with a difficult topic, that we've all probably thought about at some point - How do we decide who deserves to live and die? In that way, it kinda reminds me of Death Note, but without the action, and with more people deciding who can live and die. Besides that, the only flaw with this movie, is how 'surface level' it is. Some of the 'problems' they deal with, isn't well though about and predictable. Of course they talk about racism, sexuality, how children deserves to leave, how the old should die first, who gives more to society and so on. It feels predictable, where it would have been better to deal with other topics that isn't so 'basic'. Besides that, it's great movie for people who enjoy talky movies, with plenty of philosophic questions, but it has it's flaws. 7/10

twinkle_pink I really want to imagine that this movie was pitched after the writers went through some internet comment forums, took the most common themes of moral argument, re-imagined them in a life or death scenario, and scripted out who would ultimately be left alive. Then the CEO boss people told them that the movie needed some context, and they panicked and chose aliens.Luckily for them I love reading comment wars, so I enjoyed this movie just to hear the people arguing with each other over who deserved to live. I think it could've been a really good movie if they had put just a little more effort into the background story and characters. Although I do think it managed to get across quite nicely how easily we sentence people to judgment based on very fast and surface level interactions.I did think it was a fairly realistic representation of how people generally think, however I did not buy at all that it was how most normal people put in that situation would actually act. For starters, I imagine there would be a LOT more confusion and panic at first and people fainting, puking, and accidentally killing themselves by leaving their circle. I would also like to think there would be at least a few more people out of 50 who would refuse to play along with voting for others to die...Anyway, decent movie, probably worth a watch on a lazy weekend evening, but I'm not going to go around recommending it to everyone.