Involuntary

Involuntary (De ofrivilliga, 2008) is Ruben Östlund's deadpan ensemble film, available to watch online on iFILM. Five loosely linked stories chase a single question: how hard is it to break from the crowd?

A teacher watches a colleague humiliate a pupil and says nothing. Two teenage girls drink and post the fallout. A group of men can't admit when a prank has gone too far. Bus passengers endure a driver who refuses to back down. Östlund shoots in long, locked-off takes, often cropping faces clean out of frame, until the social discomfort turns almost physical.

This is early Östlund, nearly a decade before The Square and Triangle of Sadness took the Palme d'Or, yet the cold eye on conformity and shame is already here. It's for viewers who like comedy that makes them squirm. Stream Involuntary (2008) online on iFILM.