Review of Experimenter (2015) by Carlos M — 30 Apr 2016

Would make a great double feature with The Stanford Prison Experiment movie. As I explained in my review for that film as background, I had a semester internship at the Center for the History of American Psychology, an archives/museum on the University of Akron campus, when I was getting my library degree.

They had one of the "shock boxes" on display there and I found myself most interested in the social psychology field. Writer/director Almereyda has put some unique touches on this film. There are several well known actors in minor rolls.

Peter Sarsgaard is professor Milgram and Winona Ryder is his faithful wife Sasha. Milgram's most famous "obedience experiments" took place in 1961, ten years before the Stanford Prison Experiments.

This movie explores those experiments from all sides, but goes beyond them to reveal more about the rest of Stanley Milgram's life. Professor Milgram often breaks the fourth wall to explain the outcome of some situation directly to the audience so that the next scene can move forward more quickly.

We are introduced to a few other experiments that Milgram initiated and to Sasha and Stanley's long relationship as equals. There is also a segment where professor Milgram and Sasha visit another professor who had been an inspiration to Stanley in his younger days.

The filmmakers use green screens and black-and-white photos of the interior and exterior of this other professor's home to set the scenes. Historians or archivists may find this effect especially fascinating.

I have not seen any other filmmaker mix live action and archival materials quite like this before. If you watch this movie, you will be entertained, perhaps disturbed, but you will definitely learn something.