Critique of “Welcome to the Circle” (2020): A Movie Review

Welcome to the Circle. A cult hidden in a remote forest. Blessings to you! All good news! A father and daughter are attacked by a (maybe?) bear in the woods. The Circle is a group of females with a balding leader that utters platitudes, and who seem to be a bit off. The Circle is a group of neohippies who are unplugging themselves from the grid. But, what else could they be? Dad Greg (Matthew MacCaull from “Tomorrowland“) is camping with his daughter Samantha (Taylor Dianne Robinson of “Last Night in Suburbia”), and they are bonding. They continue bonding while camping. Greg wakes up in a bed with two attractive women and mosquito nets. He has no daughter. They tell him he’s in The Circle! The Circle! Blessings, tidings, etc., etc. They say your daughter is at school! How long has this guy been out? Matthew should meet Greg! Blessings! You’d be wrong if you thought I wasn’t swooning over that door at this point. Matthew (Michael Rogers from “The ABCs of death“) extolled the virtues of The Circle, telling Greg how amazing it is if you are a believer. Greg is certainly disturbed by the off-kilter behavior of the residents of The Circle, but his injuries are still so bad that he can only shamble from one place to another, mostly in the direction he wants. Sam, his daughter, is a big fan of The Circle. No matter how uncomfortable Greg finds the whole thing, Sam doesn’t want to go. There aren’t any kids in the place, but there are many mannequins that look like real children. There’s also this guy who goes out fishing with Sam and Greg the first day they’re at The Circle. Matthew comes along. That’s all we ever see of him. They’ve hired a man named Grady (Ben Cotton, “a href=”https://thecriticalcritics.com/reviews/movie_review-the_day_the_earth_stood_still/”>The Day the Earth Stood Still/a>), which rhymes with Shady, and is the vibe Grady gives off. Grady is a man they’ve hired (Ben Cotton from “The day the Earth Stood still“) who gives off a Shady vibe. Grady seems to know quite a bit about The Circle and you’ll be able to guess the reason. Grady carries a tranquilizer pistol, just in case Rebekah isn’t willing to come. The reluctant hero/lone wolf then sets off on a quest to save the princess. The movie Welcome To the Circle feels like an ordinary cult film for the first (at least) half of the film. More specifically, it’s a film about cults. You meet the residents, you can immediately tell that something is wrong, but it takes the Hero some time to realize this. The Hero then escapes or tries to. All of this happens in The Circle, but there’s more to it than meets the eyes. What if a cult wasn’t based on false beliefs? What if a cult’s “superpower” was really supernatural? What if they aren’t just deranged, blissfully ignorant granola eaters? . . What if they are dangerous, because they truly believe in a power that is malignant and authentic? Welcome To The Circle redeems itself (somewhat). Not just the characters, but also us, are distorted by reality. This makes it a bit difficult to follow but there is just enough organic explanation along the way to keep us from becoming too disoriented. The movie reminded of “The Endless,” a film that also revolved around a cult who turned out to have a real agenda. This film explains the difference between “real fake” and “fake fake” – the latter is something that looks fake like the creepy mannequins but actually is real. Oh snap! Are those mannequins really real? They might be real, or they may not. It could all be a fake. As one character said, if X has been repeated over and over again for years, you will believe it even if the evidence in front of you says otherwise. The film is full of philosophical claptrap, which, even in the best circumstances, could make your mind spin out — or at least, tautologically control. The Circle is The Circle. The meaning is the significance of the meaning. This is elementary stuff. This rhetoric creates a film which is less grounded than necessary, and bedevils the viewer to wonder if all of it means anything or if it’s simply, to borrow a phrase from the film itself, a bunch smoke and mirrors. Even the violent bloodshed — and there is plenty of that! Even the bloody violence — and there’s plenty of it! Welcome To The Circle has some unimaginative storytelling in its first half. Then it goes into a creative world. The sound mixing is another issue that lasted throughout the entire movie. The background music and sound should, well, be in the background. Yet, it is so loudly mixed in many scenes that you cannot hear the characters. This was a big mistake, since they usually give the viewers some exposition. Robinson (as Samantha), and Jordana Largy, who plays Circlist Tina in “Rememory”, both give excellent, multilayered performances. The rest is a bunch of nothingness.