Fresh
Mostly playful if occasionally pretentious ...
Peter Keough, Boston Globe
Experimenter
Illusion sets the stage. Deception reveals the truth.
2015 · 1h 37m · PG-13
Drama, History
Directed by
Michael Almereyda
Overview
Yale University, 1961. Stanley Milgram designs a psychology experiment that still resonates to this day, in which people think they’re delivering painful electric shocks to an affable stranger strapped into a chair in another room. Despite his pleads for mercy, the majority of subjects don’t stop the experiment, administering what they think is a near-fatal electric shock, simply because they’ve been told to do so. With Nazi Adolf Eichmann’s trial airing in living rooms across America, Milgram strikes a nerve in popular culture and the scientific community with his exploration into people’s tendency to comply with authority. Celebrated in some circles, he is also accused of being a deceptive, manipulative monster, but his wife Sasha stands by him through it all.
Director and cast
- Michael Almereyda Director
- Peter Sarsgaard as Stanley Milgram
- Winona Ryder as Sasha Menkin Milgram
- Jim Gaffigan as James McDonough
- Taryn Manning as Mrs. Lowe
- Kellan Lutz as William Shatner
- John Leguizamo as Taylor
- Anton Yelchin as Rensaleer
- Lori Singer as Florence Asch
- Dennis Haysbert as Ossie Davis
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
86%
Tomatometer
Rotten
There are a few feints at considerations of human nature, and a word is spoken in defense of obedience, but the film serves better to start a conversation than to draw a conclusion.
Matthew Lickona, San Diego Reader
Fresh
Fascinating work by Michael Almereyda, a mix of audacious artifice, ruminations and reality.
John Anderson, Newsday
Fresh
Peter Sarsgaard carries this engaging biopic of Stanley Milgram.
J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader
Rotten
When you have such a provocative foundation and such rich material to work with, pushing it to the next level isn't necessarily the best choice.
Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times
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