Despite its brevity, The Platform (2019) felt as stretched as its multi-level pit setting. But that's not really a bad thing as there's no wasted minute in this film. From start to finish, director Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia developed the movie with so much intensity there was no time to breathe. I've never been as stressed out by the film since the other one who forbade me to breathe (Don't Breathe, 2016).
Many people compared this to Parasite (2019), but while the South Korean film featured class struggle in a graceful, subtle manner, The Platform put it front and center (or should I say levitating and center?) in the most uncouth, explicit, and literal way possible. The viewers was subjected to almost all kinds of gore that could be legally shown, but all these were done to push a vital message down our throats.
Led by Iván Massagué as the protagonist Goreng, the cast was remarkable. But even more so was Zorion Eguileor who portrayed Goreng's first cellmate, Trimagasi. His performance was the only subtle thing in the entire film—that is subtly devious in the way he taunt Goreng in the 94-minute run.
Some references to Don Quixote, the biblical message of the Messiah, and actual message would go overlooked when everything else violent and gore are already in your face. But this just showed just how much smarter David Desola and Pedro Rivero's screenplay than we perceive it to be. But the cherry on top of this anxiety-inducing thriller was the score by Aranzazu Calleja. It was perfectly wicked and urgent. It elevated the exquisitely grim production design by Azegiñe Urigoitia and Gaztelu-Urrutia's fast-paced directing.
The Platform is an exhausting and stressful social thriller that created a world where the message of class struggle was shown as explicitly as possible, which resounded and lingered until the credits rolled in.
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