Film

The Circle

Name: The Circle
Genre: Drama, Thriller, Science Fiction
Released: 2017
Cast: Emma Watson, Tom Hanks, John Boyega, Karen Gillan, Ellar Coltrane

Other titles called The Circle: the 2000 film, the 2018 series (Channel 4), the 2020 series (Netflix).

Dystopian sci-fi

A young idealist joins a powerful tech monopoly and rises fast, only to watch her utopian vision curdle into something sinister. It's a film about complicity, surveillance capitalism, and how good intentions pave roads to darker places. A corporate thriller that moves like a slow-burn warning.

TMDb rating

2.8

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy a slow-burning tech satire where the menace is cheerful, corporate and easy to mistake for progress, with Tom Hanks beaming through the middle of it.

Skip it if your patience for speechy, on-the-nose dialogue is thin, since much of the argument about privacy arrives as lecture rather than drama.

What it asks of you: Patience with a long, glossy build-up is needed before the unease tightens, and it rewards attention more than background viewing at 110 minutes.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Disconnect2013

An ensemble thriller about how the internet fractures lives across a web of strangers. Sharp, propulsive, and genuinely unsettling about digital consequences without being preachy about it.

But Juggling multiple storylines can feel scattered, and some resolutions feel slightly neat for the messy premise.

The Social Network2010

Fast, witty, and morally murky—a film about ambition and the price of building something world-changing. Jesse Eisenberg's Mark is a fascinating counterpoint to Emma Watson's Mae: brilliant but isolated versus brilliant but desperate to belong.

But Focuses more on boardroom drama than systemic critique; some found it unfair to Zuckerberg's actual vision at the time.

Snowden2016

Oliver Stone's urgent biography about a man who chooses conscience over career. It's the idealist's cautionary tale, built around the specific machinery of surveillance that The Circle only sketches.

But Stone's direction can feel heavy-handed, and the film sometimes prioritizes righteousness over nuance.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Circle

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Branded2012

Both are films about how corporations colonize consciousness—but where The Circle is a polished thriller, Branded explodes into fever dream and visual madness, showing you complicity as psychological dissolution rather than corporate ascent.

A surreal, visually hallucinatory thriller about a man hunted by a corporation that has somehow weaponized branding and advertising itself. It takes corporate manipulation to absurdist extremes and actually sustains the fever dream.

But Wildly uneven and sometimes impenetrable; it will frustrate more viewers than it captivates. But if it clicks, it's unforgettable.

Succession2018

A masterclass in how institutions corrupt character. Watch someone with genuine intentions get ground down by ambition and loyalty to power. The writing is electric and the ensemble cast is extraordinary.

But It's four seasons; you'll need to commit. The wealthy families are sometimes too cartoonish for their own good.

Halt and Catch Fire2014

A prestige drama about people trying to build something revolutionary in the computer industry. It understands innovation as both exhilarating and corrosive, especially to relationships.

But Pacing is deliberate, even slow. It asks patience and rewards it, but not everyone has that appetite.

The Morning Show2019

A behind-the-scenes look at a media institution collapsing under the weight of its own power. Stars Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston navigating complicity and compromise in real time.

But Occasionally sacrifices subtlety for topical headlines; some storylines resolve faster than they deserve.

Minority Report2002

A thrilling sci-fi noir about surveillance systems and the danger of certainty. Tom Cruise's character is hunted by the very technology he helped build—a perfect mirror of Mae's trajectory.

But Lighter and more action-driven than The Circle; if you want philosophical depth, you'll get spectacle instead.

Her2013

A tender, weird film about intimacy in a world shaped entirely by technology. It asks what we lose when we let algorithms understand us better than we understand ourselves.

But It's a love story between a man and an AI, which will feel either profound or ridiculous depending on your mood.

Anon2018

Andrew Niccol (who also wrote The Circle screenplay) delivers a near-future noir about a world without privacy. It's visual, strange, and genuinely committed to its premise.

But It's a lesser film than The Circle and sometimes disappears into its own concept; the plot can feel secondary to the world-building.

The Conversation1974

Both pivot on the same moral: surveillance doesn't protect us, it consumes us. But The Conversation arrived 43 years earlier and knew that power lies not in visibility but in invisibility—the opposite of what The Circle preaches.

Francis Ford Coppola's masterpiece about a surveillance expert who becomes the surveilled. Gene Hackman is paranoid, principled, and ultimately powerless. It's slow-burn paranoia that gets inside your chest.

But Made in 1974, it moves at a 1970s pace. If you need action and momentum, this will test your patience. It's also entirely about dread.