Summary : Five individuals who do not know each other are held prisoner pending execution. They are forced to choose a person among them who will have the immense privilege of surviving this ordeal.
Circle of Netflix is a thriller that has been on the platform for a long time now. It has created a small reputation on the networks by registering as a film certainly minimalist, but provided with an extremely powerful societal purpose and well representative of the viscosity of the human species.
Circle does not take downtime. The protagonists quickly understand that every two minutes, one of them is arbitrarily killed by a central object that throws lightning. They begin to wonder: what are they doing there? What will happen if…? They make assumptions, make crappy deals, accuse each other, bamboozle, sacrifice themselves.
From the start we have the right to a disintegration of the great precepts of life which are shattered. First, let’s vote to kill the old people, they’ve had enough of it. There is no longer this logic of the value of human life, we must safeguard the lives of the youngest. There is a comparison to be made with certain speeches held by conspirators on the covid-19 crisis: if the oldest die, it is a kind of natural selection. Circle shows that once in a situation of danger, the human being is an animal, determined to survive.
Two groups end up being created: those who still have a minimum of humanity and common sense and who want to see the pregnant woman (Allegra Masters) and the little girl (Ashley Key) among the two survivors of the “challenge” when others refuse to die for them to the point of using verbal violence to ensure survival. Circle almost wears the clothes of purgatory since a character announces in particular “Has everyone paid their debt?” “.
In all this conglomerate of betrayals, lies and deceit, alone Eric (Michael Nardelli) will manage to pull out of the game. By finding himself alone with the little girl and the pregnant woman, he manages to eliminate both at the same time, then finding himself on Earth again. We understand at the end of the feature film that all the humans in the world seem to have been kidnapped by aliens and that the latter have carried out a natural selection as shown in the film to keep only a handful.
Circle deals with many visceral themes of humanity:
- The rule of age: As stated above, age becomes a criterion for killing people. Such or such person has lived long enough, it can give way to the youngest. Except that some argue during the film that we must lower this age threshold. Many believe that after your fifties, you have to sacrifice yourself to let young people live. Now at 50, as at 70, we still have a lot to live with, so this argument is not valid and is only an excuse for some younger characters to buy time.
- Racism and Immigration: When a foreign character is among his American counterparts, clichés rain: Is he in a regular situation? Has he committed any crimes? The others in the room take advantage of his lack of knowledge of English to attack and defame him. In a situation of danger, Cercle shows the exacerbated communitarianism of the people.
- Fatherhood and motherhood: Having children becomes an excuse to be left alive. However, this excuse is quickly dismantled since the last to remain all have children.
- The LGBT community: One of the people in the play is a lesbian and finds himself directly attacked by the old traditionalist conservative. Some questions like “this little one would be happier with two parents of the opposite sex” started to rain.
- The belief : Atheism becomes the target of some members of the Circle.
- Handling: All means seem good to survive, including forming a bogus couple within the Circle.
True mirror of human civilization, Cercle shows that in a situation of survival, the human being is ready to transgress everything.