Review: The Platform

With a strong, dystopian-horror premise and hit-and-miss social commentary, The Platform is a Netflix film worth checking out. The movie’s interesting characters, neat world building, and escalating stakes will certainly remain engaging throughout the film’s runtime, even if you find yourself with nagging questions afterwards. 

The film opens with Goreng (Ivan Massagué) waking up in a cell with his new, older roommate Trimagasi (Zorion Eguileor). They are held in a plain, concrete room, with a large hole in the center of both the floor and the roof. There are identical rooms as far as the eye can see above and below them. A platform descends down once a day with food on it for them to eat; however, the food is only stocked at the top of the prison. As it makes its way down, less and less food is present, so you get whatever scraps are left for you by the other inmates or worse, nothing at all. Goreng has undergone his six month sentence willingly, in order to obtain a seemingly important certificate. Trimagasi cannot say the same and has a more nefarious reason for being there. As Goreng learns more about his new surroundings, he is faced with a situation much more horrific than he was led to believe. Surviving his sentence is no longer his most immediate problem. Simply eating at all will be the hardest thing he has ever done.

The Platform opens strong. Within its first moments, it establishes a cat and mouse dynamic between Goreng and Trimagasi. It was impressive. The characters appear fully formed, and their growing relationship is understood almost instantly. Their repeated use of “obviously” towards each other was wonderful, and I liked the way it gets peppered into the film throughout. What drew me in was the contradiction apparent in the movie’s presentation and central conflict. Here, we have a film presented from Goreng’s perspective, yet the very nature of that perspective is being shaped and called into question by Trimagasi. Usually, with this unreliable narrator structure, a mental break of some kind is the reason for narrative inconsistencies. But here, he is being given potentially faulty information from the beginning. What is Trimagasi after? What game is he playing? You wonder whether it is purely survival, sadistically relieving boredom, or both. The two swing from friend to foe and back fluidly and naturally, circumstances always giving more than enough credence to their decisions. I was excited to see this grow and develop. Unfortunately, the film’s structure goes another way, and their dynamic does not carry through the film. It’s too bad; I would have liked to see them mine more out of this relationship, as I think it is arguably the movie’s strongest feature. 

Much in the way our two opening characters grabbed my attention, so did the world, albeit after an initial bout of apprehension. Let’s start there. A platform with levels and a clearly defined hierarchy of importance. I wonder what this is supposed to symbolize. It’s hamfisted, and in most movies that would be the end of things (a version of Snowpierecer with all of its cards laid out on the table in the first scene.) But, it takes this initially obvious set up and does a bit more with it. We learn that characters switch levels every month with no apparent order or reason. One day you could be near the top, never wanting for food, and the next you could be towards the bottom, looking at your cellmate with a more culinary eye. Yet, once people reach the top, they continue to mistreat and neglect the needs of those below them, no matter how far down they have found themselves previously. 

What was worth delving into, and what the movie aims to talk about largely, is the idea of privilege and justification. Those finding themselves in a position of privilege never use it to help anyone other than themselves. Their desperate need to survive is used to justify all of their actions, no matter how abhorrent.  Regardless of who gets to the top, they mistreat those below them. So, the movie re-posits the idea that, “absolute power corrupts, absolutely” or some version of this sentiment. Even characters who are seemingly well-intentioned resort to cruelty when they feel like they can. Imoguiri (Antonia San Juan) is a perfect example of this. She repeatedly calls for her fellow cellmates to ration their food, in order to help those less fortunate at the bottom levels. However, when what we will call “An Event” (for spoiler purposes) happens, she begins using racial epithets in her anger and pain. Again, once someone feels justified, they resort to outdated, backwards, and self-centered actions. 

This carries the movie a long way. We have a game of survival and the extreme measures required to keep surviving, mixed with social commentary that is interesting and complicated. The suspense works. The gore works. The toll taken on Goreng playing out visually works. 

Yet, the movie begins to unravel as we draw closer to the end. Late in the game, new plot elements are introduced, with the idea that food should be equally distributed by force. This fascistic philanthropy is rather contradictory, but I digress. Later, a message concept is introduced as well. The intention is to send a message, of some kind, to the people who prepare their food. This will seemingly change things in some vague, unspecified way. Both of these ideas are not completely out of the blue, but they become the central focus of the 3rd act far too quickly. We don’t see how Goreng comes to the conclusion to undertake this task. We are seeing things from his perspective, we need to see how he gets to this decision, even if he is broken and nonsensical. This took a lot of the wind out of the final act’s sails. It was engaging visually but convoluted and forced both logically and narratively. 

Another note to make regarding the film’s messaging is the strange presence of racial stereotypes. Goreng comes across Miharu (Alexandra Masangkay) repeatedly throughout the movie. She is a prisoner who will often travel down with the platform, looking for her lost child. She is deadly and formidable, killing every new cellmate in an effort to get matched with her child the next month. She is a dangerous, skilled Asian woman who is seen sexually by those around her, including Goreng. Keeping her mysterious is a clear necessity of the plot, but her inclusion as a silent (read: primitive), sexual warrior is rather “on brand” for this sort of framing. Additionally, the character of Baharat (Emilio Buale Coka) is a black man that Goreng links up with later in the film. He is presented as single-minded, vaguely religious, and a strong fighter, albeit rather simple. He and Goreng team up to go on their climatic altruistic quest. During this journey they run across another character, a black, elderly man in a wheelchair named Sr. Brambang (Eric L. Goode). He only exists to provide wisdom and guidance to our characters; a wiseman of sorts. Both of these characters thanklessly help our white protagonist attempt to reach a messianic goal that he will ultimately receive sole credit for. I’m not sure if the movie is attempting to show that not even Goreng is blameless. But, it comes across more as a lazy use of stereotyping. There isn’t a point being made with its inclusion, and the examples are rather commonplace. It would have been interesting to show that our protagonist is flawed similarly to others prisoners. If this was the intent, the movie’s need to explain its last minute finale seems to have gotten in the way.

The Platform has a lot of things going for it. As a horror film, it works well. It makes me cringe, squirm, and jump in all the right ways. The social commentary is more of a mixed bag. What it has to say about human beings’ predisposition to revert to primal thinking under extreme duress is interesting. But, it doesn’t stick the landing and includes some strange character framing. There are some neat ideas to mull over and discuss, but it leaves a lot on the table in this respect. That being said, it is definitely one of the more interesting horror films to come along in a while, especially on streaming. So, I would say check it out; there is enough going on that will stick with you after the movie is over.