I can see how you would see The circle as satire... these days, sometimes I have a very hard time telling the difference. I think it was supposed to be a movie about the benefits of all this hideous surveillance and how if you just have the right people in charge it's all wonderful... But you're right.. it was very confusing. It's almost as if there were 2-3 people who were in charge of the movie and who did not agree on the direction it should go. It was a confusing hot mess of a film if you ask me. I kept waiting for the main character (who was introduced to the audience as being very bright) was going to realize how awful the ideas she had were... I kept waiting for the lightbulb to go off, and for her to redeem herself. I thought when the black programmer dude spoke to her that they would eventually do something about the issue and try to turn things around. It was just plain weird.