Compliance, Sordid Lives

Compliance is a disturbing indie that revisits themes of obedience and brutality from the world-famous Milgram Experiment. Riveting and eminently filmic exploration of the question “how far will people go when they are convinced they are right?” The film is intense, compelling, brilliant, and above all shocking because of its troubling basis in true events. Had a profound and divisive effect on audiences. A controversial but overlooked examination of modern “civilization.”

Sordid Lives is a wild, irreverent and hilarious redneck romp through the lives and dramas of one “white trash” family grieving the death of their matriarch, who tripped over the wooden leg of her illicit lover (a funny turn by Beau Bridges.) Great, over-the-top performances by Delta Burke, Olivia Newton John, and Bonnie Bedelia, as well as a clash-of-the-crazies tete-a-tete between Rosemary Alexander and Leslie Jordan. Hilarious DVD commentary.

• Compliance (USA) 2012, Magnolia
• List price: $26.98
• Sordid Lives (USA) 2001, 20th Century Fox
• List price: $9.98

— J.D. Burke, Writer and filmmaker