A sharp, nasty dystopian allegory with a memorable premise and enough visceral invention to carry its blunt social critique. It’s more effective as a concept-driven pressure cooker than as a fully nuanced drama, but the imagery, pacing, and escalating dread make it an easy recommendation for viewers who like bleak… Read more
The Platform
Where to watch: Buy
Movie · Drama · Science Fiction
Fri · 1h 35m
Director: Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia
Starring: Ivan Massagué, Antonia San Juan, Zorion Eguileor
Overview
A slab of food descends down a vertical facility. The residents above eat heartily, leaving those below starving and desperate. A rebellion is imminent.
Director
Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia
Cast
Ivan Massagué, Antonia San Juan, Zorion Eguileor
Curator Review
Verdict
A sharp, nasty dystopian allegory with a memorable premise and enough visceral invention to carry its blunt social critique. It’s more effective as a concept-driven pressure cooker than as a fully nuanced drama, but the imagery, pacing, and escalating dread make it an easy recommendation for viewers who like bleak genre cinema with a political edge.
Best for
fans of high-concept sci-fi thrillers
viewers who enjoy social allegories about class and scarcity
people who like claustrophobic, single-location survival stories
audiences comfortable with graphic violence and body horror
Skip if
you want subtle or character-nuanced storytelling
you dislike overt political symbolism
you’re squeamish about gore, cannibalism, or starvation imagery
you prefer hopeful or emotionally warm films
Overview
The Platform turns a brutally simple idea into a grim, memorable descent through class hierarchy, hunger, and human selfishness. The vertical prison is an elegant visual metaphor, and the film knows exactly how to weaponize repetition, scarcity, and disgust to keep the audience uneasy.
Worth noting
Its biggest strength is the premise itself: every floor change feels like a new moral test, and the movie’s production design does a lot of heavy lifting. It’s not subtle, and it doesn’t need to be. The film is at its best when it leans into the absurdity of the system and the desperation it produces.
Bottom line
That said, the screenplay can be a little too eager to underline its message, and some stretches feel more like thesis delivery than drama. Even so, if you’re in the mood for a bleak, propulsive allegory with real bite, it delivers enough invention and dread to stick with you.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Lucy (4★) · 8604 likes
location: underneath jeff bezos’ house
bader (4★) · 6644 likes
the platform stops when it reaches level 0 and the girl hits the ceiling and dies a horrible death because of how fast the platform was going the end
hollie amanda (3★) · 5800 likes
the communist maniFEASTo
Ian (3★) · 4704 likes
Obviously, everyone is supposed to eat the dish that they ordered for themselves. Obviously.
josiah · 4279 likes
there is no cuter first date than eating the flesh of the old man you just killed together 🥺 💞 these rom coms get me everytime!
Themes
class inequality, scarcity and survival, capitalism as allegory, human selfishness, institutional violence, social hierarchy, moral compromise, descent into chaos
Topics
dystopian, thriller, science fiction, allegory, claustrophobic, bleak, social satire, body horror, survival, class conflict