Michael Almereyda | USA | Fiction | 2015 | 98 mins
Film Source: Magnolia
Maverick director Michael Almereyda (Nadja; Hamlet with Ethan Hawke) here tackles the famed and infamous Milgram Experiments, wherein ordinary folks found themselves willing to administer potentially lethal electric shocks to others simply because they were told to do so. The initial experiments created by Stanley Milgram, along with the subsequent trials he conducted, have been a cornerstone of discussions and debates concerning human nature and obedience ever since he first released the findings in the 1960s. In Almereyda’s wryly innovative and cerebrally probing drama, Peter Sarsgaard plays the controversial experimenter. He is joined by a fantastic cast of character actors including John Leguizamo, Jim Gaffigan, Winona Ryder, Taryn Manning, and Anton Yelchin.