Being watched changes behaviour, which makes surveillance a character device as much as a plot one. This tag collects reviews and essays on surveillance in film, fiction and working life.
1980sSharky's Machine (1981) rates 7 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Burt Reynolds directed himself in an Atlanta police thriller with a jazz score, a surveillance structure and a genuinely nasty streak, and it is the best film he…
2000sSouthland Tales (2006) rates 5 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Richard Kelly took an unfinished cut to Cannes because nobody turns down a competition slot, was booed, recut it, and watched it earn under four hundred thousand dollars.…
1970sKlute (1971) rates 8 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. The film is called Klute and it is not about Klute. Jane Fonda won the Academy Award for a performance built out of therapy sessions and a tape recorder,…
AprilHate Week comes from Orwell's 1984. Why the novel stays relevant decade after decade, and what writers can learn from fiction that became a permanent warning.
Book ReviewsThe novel that gave us Big Brother, doublethink, thoughtcrime, and the memory hole, a towering dystopia of totalitarianism, surveillance, and the war on truth itself. A masterpiece of political imagination whose warnings have only grown more relevant, and one of…
Book ReviewsBig Brother. Doublethink. Thoughtcrime. The memory hole. Orwell gave us the vocabulary for tyranny, and the words have outlived most of the books written since. A master class in carrying a political argument through one man's experience without ever lecturing,…
2010sCitizenfour is Laura Poitras's 2014 American documentary depicting Edward Snowden's June 2013 meetings with Poitras and journalist Glenn Greenwald in Hong Kong, when Snowden disclosed classified National Security Agency documents revealing extensive surveillance programs. Citizenfour proves how documentary could operate…
2010s2015 Sam Mendes Bond film with Craig. Christoph Waltz as Oberhauser-Blofeld, attempted retroactive franchise unification.
2000sDonnersmarck's 2006 German drama. A Stasi officer surveilling a playwright.
2010sThe Russo brothers' 1970s political thriller in superhero clothing. Robert Redford, Chris Evans, and the MCU's peak film.
CommunicationWorking under constant surveillance, every move second-guessed, is the unmistakable feeling of a micromanager. Across 33 years I have worked for them and alongside them, and watched the damage: good people who stop trying, teams that grind down. Here is…
Online ShamingYou used to be able to do something dumb in public and live it down. Now every camera is attached to the internet forever.
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