Content warning: gore, violence against women, racism, violence against animals, self-harm

In The Platform, Goreng wakes up in a vertical prison. Each floor has two inmates and a giant hole in the floor and the ceiling. Once a day, a platform descends and stops on each floor for the prisoners to eat for two minutes. However, the food is only loaded in at the top of the prison tower. After floor one, everyone is eating leftovers. The floors are reassigned every month, and the lower floors portend certain death. Goreng tries to make sense of his situation while deciding how and if he can change the system.

The Platform has a great logline. The concept alone is going to get people to watch. Its clarity is on the level of iconic horror/thriller concepts like Se7en or Saw. It’s a cruel film, but one with a simple idea that can go in any number of directions.

The Platform, originally titled El hoyo (or The Hole), has a lot going for it. The cast is great across the board. Ivan Massagué is a captivating central figure as Goreng. His fellow prisoners played by Zorion Eguileor, Antonia San Juan, Alexandra Masangkay, and Emilio Buale have very distinct roles in the story. They all play off each other well, with Massagué’s performance shifting to different tones and nuances depending on who he’s talking to. The ensemble, whether they’re playing prisoners or the army of chefs preparing gourmet feasts every day, is memorable and makes the most out of their featured moments. No one is phoning it in, no matter how small the role.

The production design is spot on. The gray cells and khaki uniforms contrast the only changing elements in the story. Each cell is equipped with a red and green light to indicate when food is arriving or leaving. The feast is established as a bright and colorful presentation in the opening montage, but arrives even on the higher floors as a messy blend of grays and browns. The people and the movement of the platform are the most important part of this story and the production design supports that vision.

Unfortunately, The Platform does lose its way pretty early on. Goreng is on a Hero’s Quest, complete with bringing a copy of The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha as his one personal item. He is a good person who enters The Hole with a clear purpose (to quit smoking and be rewarded a degree upon leaving). Then, he takes note of a bigger problem and sets out to solve it.

He has his all is lost moment pretty early on in the story, as the Hero should, but doesn’t regain his footing on his quest until right before the third act. That’s a long time to spend spinning your wheels in a film where most scenes have two people contemplating life and misery. The side plots are not very well connected to the main quest and are usually resolved in the same lazy way. It’s hard to establish a throughline and then put it on the backburner for half the runtime of a film to hint at subplots and character arcs that aren’t really necessary.

The Platform is not a bad film. I just think it chose the wrong format or framing. This could have worked as an anthology film at the expense of not centering the entire story on Goreng. It also would have been a great limited series. There, Goreng could still be the hero, but more time could be spent on the other characters so they rise above being merely symbolic of the sins of a society that would create The Hole. As it stands, there are enough interesting visuals, strong acting, and shifting circumstances to get some value out of The Platform. It definitely sets a mood and goes on a journey.

The Platform is currently streaming on Netflix.

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