Experimenter

The film created conversation between the viewing party so it gets major points for that. However, the viewing party was just my wife and I. Don't I talk to her enough; now I have to do it during movies too? Points deducted. Sarsgaard is very dry (as he should be) so it gets more points, but at one point he sports the worst facial hair since whatever Burt Reynolds did last. Points deducted. Worst offense was only ever teasing us with electrocuting Jim Gaffigan. Points de...nah. I like Gaffigan.

As a history lesson, it's fine. As a film, it's dead boring and kind of pointless. And don't get me wrong - the experiments themselves were pretty interesting, and I'm sure would be good to discuss in a psychology class. But presented this way, it just doesn't work. Even when it's trying to be artful, it just looks like they didn't have a budget. I like Sarsgaard fine usually, but he's painfully uninteresting in this, and Ryder just looks silly because she's really trying.

feels less like a biopic of stanley milgram, or even cinema, than of the entire human race. would make a perfect double bill with THE LOOK OF SILENCE (or almereyda's own HAMLET, actually).

The topic is very interesting, but the movie not so much. Everything besides the actual experiment is kinda trivial. It would have worked much better as a full documentary (which I most likely wouldn't have watched admittedly...)

The subject is extremely interesting, and the tense drama and extensive emotional repercussions of Milgram's obedience experiment are shown in Poul Martinsen's completely essential documentary for Danish public tv from 1976 called 'Lydighedens dilemma'. Almereyda doesn't get the most out of this potential. Instead he delivers a solid, but somewhat disposable biopic in which it doesn't really help matters that the beard that Saarsgaard sports in the final 30 minutes looks enormously ridiculous.

Pretty good and I always like Sarsgaard. Feels a little thin for a full-length movie tho

One of Almereyda's most fully-realized films, and probably his first truly major work since Happy Here and Now. Much like Milgrim's famous experiment, Almereyda's films are nearly always about something other than their alleged "subject", and here the underlying themes of both the film and Milgrim's work are build into the very nature of the film itself. It's Bechtian conceits are both beautifully executed and playfully unpretentious while illustrating deep insights into the human experience.

Interesting subject matter, but boring execution.

Spend 15-20 minutes reading the wikipedia article - which I had alread done - and you haven't missed anything by not watching this.

A major disappointment given the intriguing subject matter and stellar cast. It felt like more like a play than a movie. I couldn't take Dr. M seriously once he donned that ridiculous beard.

A well-crafted docudrama that explores the history and dark implications of the Milgrim experiment. However, the whole thing mostly reeks of something you'd watch in Intro to Psychology. Its nihilism and focus on the "banality of evil" act as window dressing to the rather by-the-numbers biopic. Furthermore, the jabs at previous attempts to dramatize the significance of the study come across as either self-righteous or self-mocking, neither of which is particularly interesting to me.

Interesting story but output was so out of my mind that I could not see it till the end.

Experimenter (2015) experiments with how to turn a drama into a documentary for the silver screen without the audience noticing it. And it worked surprisingly well.

The movie is the most fascinating during the experiments, and the attempts to engage you to the other aspects of the story are interesting but there just really isn't enough in the story. The plethora of cameos were impressive and the performances were great too. It was good to see Winona Ryder up there again.

I liked the literalization of "the elephant in the room". I didn't like other representational devices. All in all there's the intelligence and precision of a documentary coupled with a biopic of unusual dramatic detachment.

Had potential. Soliloquies and singing?

While perhaps not criminally insane like Zimbardo, Milgram's work was deeply flawed, both ethically and scientifically. To boot, his attempt to tie it to Nazi obedience really speaks to the poverty of experimental psychology's grasp of reality. As these biopics often go, Almereyda is a fanboy and his depiction is fawning, with only rudimentary representations of Milgram's critics. Also, Milgroim isn't a Hebrew word, it's Yiddish - a googleable error twice repeated in the film.

A well-deserved highlight on a historical figure that hasn't enjoyed much of popular recognition. Some of the narrative decisions were a bit baffling, though. Mainly this is a straight-laced biopic but once in a while there's some fantastical visual elements that felt very random.

Poor direction and uninspired writing turn Experimenter into a largely pointless biopic. The start of the film intrigues, but the remainder fails to develop characters adequately, provide any further revelation or plot development, and the excessive fourth-wall monologues to pretentiously surreal backdrops tire quicky. This is sloppy filmmaking with a great cast and good premise, i.e. a tremendous disappointment.

The experiments depicted here are incredibly relevant in 2020, just as they always have been.

Seen: 2.

Felt like a documentary. Very familiar with the Milgrim experiments, I didn't feel this offered me anything interesting.

Meh, that's what comes to my mind when I thing of this movie. I had already heard about these experiments before so that part wasn't shocking or interesting for me and how the story of Stanley Milgram was told wasn't interesting either, maybe his life wasn't very interesting just his experiments, if this was the case maybe they've shouldn't have made a movie about his life

The behavioral experiments Stanley Milgram conducted in the 60s were fascinating and this film does a good job of explaining what he was about and how controversial yet important his work was. Sarsgaard gives a very muted performance - presumably matching the real Milgram's personality, and the film itself is presented in a clever and creative way, elevating it above most other biopics.

Experimenter colored inside the lines too much by sticking too close to the facts. This made it feel stuck in a weird state between being a documentary and being a drama. Since I was unaware of most of the subject matter, I found it educational. I really liked the acting and the use of a limited budget. This project would make for an excellent play. However, it was only a decent movie.

The experiments were interesting but the man was not. Got bored about an hour in, where it switched from more drama to more documentary. I even like documentaries, but I wasn't a fan of this one. Also, like some others, I was distracted by the bad beard. ¯_(?)_/¯

C for subject / C for execution...

Poorly paced movie about a fascinating procedure.

A documentary at half the running time and a less monotonous voice-over would've been better. It lacked any sense of dramatic drive or dynamism, it's the kind of thing they'd give you at school to watch when the psychology teacher is too hungover to teach

Excellent film from Almereyda, one that illustrates its subject not just narratively, but formally. The breaking of the fourth wall suggests authority, while the numerous false backgrounds suggest inauthenticity, and possibly malevolence. This combination effectively raises the question of whether Milgram is himself having to become to malevolent authority in order to study people's responses to malevolent authority. It's an open question that Almereyda invests with a measure of irony at the end

Slow, mostly dry & clinical. The ideas explored were somewhat interesting. I did not like the constant talking to the camera. Winona Ryder was gorgeous. Interesting and revealing test results, but the movie is not enjoyable. Super hokey car driving scenes and black & white backdrops. What was with the elephant? Very pretentious. By the end it was starting to get very tedious and tiresome. Some of the music was annoying.

eng; [experimenter]; das leben von einem experimental psychologen, welcher den gehorsam von menschen testet, - sein experiment schlägt soziale wellen nachdem es bekannt und anerkannt wird.;

1383: a good biography