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.
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,
22 Oct 2015
fresh:
Peter Sarsgaard carries this engaging biopic of Stanley Milgram.
– J. R. Jones,
Chicago Reader,
22 Oct 2015
fresh:
Fascinating work by Michael Almereyda, a mix of audacious artifice, ruminations and reality.
– John Anderson,
Newsday,
22 Oct 2015
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.