REVIEW: by Peter Nichols | A
Stefan Fairlamb and Ashley Tabatabai have put out a narrative that identifies a core potential of humanity, “obedience”. The filmmakers dramatize ‘how a person can respond in obedience to an authority figure‘.
This will be the second collaboration of the duo, and it emphasizes a model that will keep them relevant and always working in the industry.
Filmmakers I give you “THE INTERVIEW”
In their signature “one scene-realism” setup this film short is fashioned like “Falsified” (Stefan Fairlamb & Ashley Tabatabai previous effort) with a relevant narrative between a cheeky entrepreneur/interviewer (Joseph Green) and his interviewee (Bobby). Ashley, who doubled as writer and producer, describes it as “a dark comedy, about a down on his luck man (Bobby) who has a job interview with an opportunistic entrepreneur (Joseph Green – “I like the name”) that takes him out of his comfort zone. And we do agree, but here is the thing, Stefan Fairlamb uses a device from classic melodrama, “the temptress” or “the entrepreneur/interviewer” to lure a man (Bobby) from his family into real trouble, what Ashley refers to as “takes him (Bobby) out of his comfort zone”. At this point I empathize more with Bobby than Green.
Now, Joseph Green is the talented entrepreneur who must take advantage of Bobby to create his new viral video to make money (thanks Capitalism). At this point, I suddenly ‘felt’, I may be wrong, that Ashley, while writing ‘The Interview‘, borrowed a scene from the ruthless old west. The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral hit me; Lawmen Wyatt Earp, Virgil Earp, Morgan Earp and Doc Holliday, on October 26, 1881 at Tombstone, Arizona Territory cocked and loaded against poor old unprepared Bobby. It was a bloody ambush.
Joseph Green is a name I like a lot (that must be the second time, I mentioned that), and I may have reason to think that’s really not an actual name for our entrepreneur/interviewer character, and that reason is mine to keep. In his favour though, Green has a lot of skills in his arsenal. He’s got sales skills, recruitment skills, the inspiring talk, he picked the right character for his viral video, and must have made money with little or no expenditure off Bobby. So he is ruthless and successful at what he does.
Psychology
At the “Fade in” of this review, I mentioned the filmmakers dramatize ‘how a person can respond in obedience to an authority figure’. And “The interview” reminds me of the Milgram Experiment, a social psychology experiment, which tested the obedience of participants to authority figures.
Participants (“the teacher”) were led by (“the experimenter”) to believe that they were assisting an unrelated experiment, in which they had to administer electric shocks to a “learner (an actor or accomplice in a plot).” These fake electric shocks gradually increased to levels that would have been fatal had they been real. Stanley Milgram’s ad for the experiment read “Persons Needed for a study of Memory“, but it was actually a study of obedience. The variant in our review; in the Milgram Experiment, “the teacher” and “the learner” could not see each other.
Yes, The Interview is like a social behavioural experiment. And we do like to believe what we are told, especially if they are authoritative.
In Conclusion
“The Interview is a dark comedy that dramatizes our humanity in a social interaction.”
Film: The Interview
Starring: Ashley Tabatabai & Scott Michael Wagstaff
Directed & Edited: Stefan Fairlamb
Cinematography: Adam Lyons
Original Score & Sound Design: by Howard Carter
Makeup: Anna Stephenson
Sound Recordist: Paul Harrison
Assistant Camera & Graphics: Francesca Hotchin
Written & Produced: Ashley Tabatabai
