One of my all time favorites.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

To the backdrop of a massive protest against banks and large corporations, one of the latter tests 7 candidates to see which one will get the one open position. No one from Personnel shows up, instead, they get instructions, sometimes vague, through computer monitors, and this explores the group dynamics(which are not rigid throughout) of these very different, and all fully rounded, credible characters(not one of which is a scapegoat or only negative), as well as the nature of authority, social pressure, and the effect of capitalism on priorities and how far we're willing to go. It kind of plays out like watching one of those sick psychological experiments from the 60's. We are limited to these people and then the quirky, strange secretary(who really adds to this overall Kafkaesque feeling), and the setting is equally isolated(one could almost call it claustrophobic), with us not leaving the foreign, unfriendly environment of the office for the entire duration. The acting is excellent. Dialog is great. This is tense from start to finish, only increasing as it goes, and the pacing is incredible. Not only are you never bored, it only gets more gripping as it goes, and the ending is utterly spot-on, and perfect. There are some nice surprises along the way, if you can figure some things out from tendencies and the like(something I don't see anything wrong with, if it comes naturally, then it doesn't have to pull the carpet out from underneath the audience). There is a bit of moderate to strong language and a brief but rather direct sex scene, with female frontal nudity(possibly full, it's hard to tell) in this. I recommend this to fans of Spanish cinema and films driven by those they follow, and that go into human nature(including the ugly parts). 8/10

The movie presents itself clearly as anti-globalist, anti-imperialist and anti-social-darwinist. The capitalism is bad, the progressive youth fights for our future on the streets, etc etc you know that. Whatever. I have never understood why the cinematographers think the anarchy is better than global imperialism, I seriously think both ideologies suck. The social anarchism does not even work.Ideology aside there is quite simple "elimination" movie which starts well, but runs out of the steam in about half. The more interesting characters are eliminated fast, the less interesting ones will stay and in the end there is one weird and bizarre triangle. Yes there somewhat illogical sex and other happenings, but nothing special. It is more collage of unconnected happenings that story that unfolds in any reasonable manner.In the end we fall again into pile of sentiment and pseudo socialist rubbish. The "guy from the rich family" and the "self made woman" start to remember the beautiful times in Africa when they dreamed about living simple life there at the sea. (Which part of Africa is so nice you can live happily as a white guy today without risk of being kidnapped or murdered? Madagascar?) Then end is predictable, simple, slow, boring and anti climactic. It is simply disappointing.

Seven executives are gathered in a room, ostensibly to chose one to fill an open position. I tuned in to see Eduardo Noriega, but he was not the star of this film. The real stars were the writers Mateo Gil and Marcelo Piñeyro, who took a Jordi Galcerán play and made a film that was compelling from start to finish.In addition to Noriega, there were outstanding performances by Ernesto Alterio, Carmelo Gómez, Eduard Fernández, Adriana Ozores, and Pablo Echarri. While her role was minor, Natalia Verbeke had a charm that captivated me every time she entered the room.I don't know about this Grönholm method, but it certainly brought out the best and worst of the people, and showed what they would be like in the company. I guess the closest thing to this film would be 12 Angry Men, except here it was seven, and two were women. Sexism, ageism, nationalism: they all came into play as the individuals competed.What part of yourself do you give up to win? Outstanding ending.

In the tradition of "No Exit" and "Twelve Angry Men," "The Method" gathers a small group of people into a single room to observe what happens when they are forced to spend an inordinate amount of time together, essentially cut off from the outside world. (The movie throws in elements from such wide-ranging and eclectic sources as "And Then There Were None," "1984," "To Tell the Truth" and "Survivor" as well).Seven high-powered job applicants, all vying for a single position in a prestigious company, arrive at a high rise office building in downtown Madrid. As a part of the selection process, the seven are immediately put into a room and subjected to a battery of bizarre psychological tests designed to pit the applicants against one another until only one of them - the default "winner" and future employee - is left.Predictably, the stress of the ordeal brings out the worst in the applicants, leading to personal betrayals, the exposing of secrets, and a cutthroat jockeying for power. Part of the fun of the movie is in seeing just how long it takes for the veneer of civilized behavior to be stripped away, exposing the ruthless animalistic nature within. For this is how the natural law of "survival of the fittest" is played out in the modern world - no longer with clubs, bows and arrows, but with duplicity, deviousness and carefully chosen words.However, the individuals are not the only ones to come under the scathing censure of the filmmakers. The movie also attacks the Big Brother aspects of corporations in their insistence on total allegiance to the company in exchange for "job security" and their willingness to drain their employees of their humanity to secure that allegiance. Yet just outside this bleak, stark and sterile office building, where "civilized" people are subtlety tearing each other apart for corporate advancement, masses of people are marching in protest against the World Bank and the IMF who are holding a conference in the city.Mateo Gil and Marcelo Pineyro have written a sharp, thoughtful screenplay that gets to the heart of the human condition, while, as a director, Pineyro manages to keep the action fluid despite the single-set restriction of the conceit (the film has been derived from the play by Jordi Calceran). The acting is uniformly excellent with each performer given his or her moment to shine as well as the chance to be an indispensable part of an extraordinary acting ensemble."The Method" may be derivative of other works at times, but the view of human nature it reveals to us is often unnerving and chilling in its honesty and precision.