Synopsis
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.
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Cast
- Peter SarsgaardStanley Milgram
- Winona RyderAlexandra "Sasha" Milgram
- Jim GaffiganJames McDonough
- Edoardo BalleriniPaul Hollander
- John PalladinoJohn Williams
- Kellan LutzWilliam Shatner
- Dennis HaysbertOssie Davis
- Danny A. AbeckaserBraverman
- Taryn ManningMrs. Lowe
- Anthony EdwardsMiller
Recommendations
- 90
Variety
Experimenter offers a heady brew of theories about the essence of human nature, and a Peter Sarsgaard performance that catches Milgram in all his seductive, megalomaniacal brilliance. - 90
New York Magazine (Vulture)
Experimenter is busily, thrillingly reflective. Its artificiality makes it seem even more alive, more in the present tense. - 90
Village Voice
The movie is itself a rat-maze of one-sided mirrors, windows upon windows, anonymous hallways, compartmentalized instances of watching, being watched, seeing and not-seeing. - 80
The Guardian
Ultimately, Experimenter finds a glimmer of hope by simply revealing itself. Maybe if more people are educated about the dangers of obedience, they’ll put up more resistance. It can’t hurt to hope. - 80
The Hollywood Reporter
Technically puckish where appropriate but grounded by strong performances from Peter Sarsgaard and Winona Ryder, the film is not awards bait but makes some Big Thinker biographies that are look staid. - 80
Screen Daily
Almereyda has created an experiment of his own: a kind of cinematic Rorschach test, prodding viewers to consider what they would do if sitting in the same seat as Milgram’s subjects. - 75
Slant Magazine
Aesthetically, the film cunningly suggests life that exists solely within an academic experiment, closed off from chaos that isn't manufactured. - 75
New York Post
Ethical objections to Milgram’s work are presented as killing the messenger; well-known issues with his methodology appear not at all. The movie’s an intellectual shock tactic, but it succeeds.
