movie thoughts: The Experimenter (2015)

[orangerful]

This is not a movie, though it may look like one from the poster.

This is not a documentary, though it might feel like one every few minutes.

I don't know what this was.

It was interesting, I will give it that. But there was no arc, no real tension. I didn't know anything about Milgrim or his specific experiment but it sounded familiar.

This isn't about "character development" or relationships.

It's just like, here's this guy, he did these things, in fact, let's have him (played by Peter Sarsgaard) tell you all about it in a somewhat random way, staring directly into the camera all of a sudden.

Not what I was expecting. Interesting but I think I might have been happier with just a straight up documentary rather than this odd combination which felt very clunky and meandering at times.

Also, I found Winona Ryder to be distracting. First, I kept staring at her neck because she seems very very thin. But I thought her acting felt forced too. (and some part of my brain always sees her as Lydia Deets, eternally a teenager/young adult and that wasn't working for me either).

I'd give this one 3 please-don't-electrocute-me-I-have-a-condition out of 5 stars.