The Interview
2010 · 2m · Canada
Directed by Claire Blanchet
Genres: drama
Tones: contemplative, provocative
A highly qualified job candidate faces racial stereotypes and prejudice that deny a fair interview, in a short about how bias can prevent employers from hiring the best person for the job.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
A two-minute PSA about hiring bias plays it so straight it almost disappears—the film seems to believe the problem is solved by simply showing us the problem, which is precisely the kind of consensus-comfort-food politics that puts me to sleep.
Blanchet constructs a formal argument through negative space and withholding: what we *don't* see of the candidate becomes the film's thesis, a deliberate formal choice that situates itself within a documentary tradition of structural critique and social witness.
The decision to keep the candidate's face mostly obscured or in profile during the interview—letting us feel the reduction of personhood rather than watch it performed—is a single elegant choice that makes the two minutes land harder than any dialogue could.