Experimenter

Drama

Available on VOD: 22 augustus 2016

Director: Michael Almereyda

Cast: Peter Sarsgaard (Black Mass, The Killing, Blue Jasmine, Jarhead), Winona Ryder (Black Swan, Homefront, The Iceman, Edward Scissorhands), John Leguizamo (The Lincoln Lawyer, John Wick, Kick-Ass 2, Ride Along), Kellan Lutz (Twilight Saga, The Expendables 3, Immortals), Anthony Edwards (ER, Top Gun, Zodiac)

Based on the real events…

Yale University, 1961. Dr. Stanley Milgram PhD, designs a psychology experiment in which people think they’re delivering electric shocks to an affable stranger strapped into a chair in another room. Subjects are told it’s about memory, but the experiment is really about conformity, conscience, and free will.

Dr. Milgram is trying to come to terms with the Holocaust and to test people’s tendency to comply with authority. The experiment yields disturbing results: 65 per cent of Dr. Milgram’s subjects deliver voltage that may be fatal, obeying polite commands from a lab-coated authority figure .

When working at Harvard, his obedience findings are announced in the New York Times. He is accused of being a deceptive, manipulative monster. Dr. Milgram re-ignites debate with his 1974 book, OBEDIENCE TO AUTHORITY. With the support of his wife he continues to fight distortions of his work, which includes a made-for-TV movie starring William Shatner.

EXPERIMENTER’S tone is celebratory, and the film’s style will be as playful and provocative as a Dr. Milgram experiment, with our protagonist often talking directly to the camera.

What would you do? is the underlying theme of major Dr. Milgram research. He spent his life exploring how to adjust and transcend pre-programed behavior. EXPERIMENTER will show how Dr. Milgram’s conscience and his creative spirit continue to be resonant, and inspire us.

Reviews

• De Volkskrant (vier sterren): Het is knap dat de film ondanks de opzettelijke kunstgrepen evenwichtig blijft en nooit in pretenties ontspoort. Prikkelend eerbetoon. Milgram-biopic is ongewoon en intrigerend. Lees het hier.
• Trouw (vier sterren): Experimenter is het fascinerende portret van Stanley Milgram, sterk gespeeld door Peter Sarsgaard.
• Vier sterren in de NRC: Originele biopic. Lees de review hier.
• Biosagenda: Intelligente en speelse film, vier sterren! Lees de hele review hier.
• De Filmkrant heeft Michael Almereyda geinterviewd, lees het hier. En geeft de film maar liefst 4.5 sterren!
• De Filmkrant: Films over wetenschappers drukken de wetenschap meestal naar de zijlijn, en zoeken het drama in het persoonlijke. Michael Almereyda bewijst met Experimenter, een eigenzinnige biografie van socioloog Stanley Milgram, hoe zonde dat is.
  Lees de hele recensie hier.
• Filmkijker.com: Sarsgaard is goed in zijn rol, maar ook Winona Ryder die zijn vrouw Sasha speelt is een plezier om naar te kijken. De manier waarop Experimenter het verhaal uit de doeken doet is opvallend en dan met name de vorm waarin. Milgram praat regelmatig direct tegen het publiek en achtergronden zijn soms simpele zwart wit foto's in plaats van echte sets, waardoor de film een kunstmatige uitstraling krijgt die goed bij het onderwerp past. Als kijker ben je daardoor meer betrokken en vraag je jezelf ook af wat jij bij zo'n experiment zou doen. Ben je sterk genoeg om nee te zeggen of ga je gehoorzaam verder? Welke factoren spelen bij die keuze een rol? Verlies je jezelf in zo'n situatie of kan je het relativeren? Experimenter weet een belangrijk onderzoek op fascinerende wijze tot leven te brengen. Lees de hele recensie hier.
• Variety.com: 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.
• TheHollywoodReporter.com: 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. It seems certain to be the deliberately fringe-dwelling auteur's most commercially successful film, and may be his most aesthetically satisfying one as well.
• New York Times: Among the most original selections (Sundance) this year are Michael Almereyda's "Experimenter," a conceptually exciting, intellectually searching portrait of the social psychologist Stanley Milgram (a superb Peter Sarsgaard), whose famous 1960s obedience experiments. Mr. Sarsgaard, occasionally addressing the camera and sometimes accompanied by an elephant that materializes in the room, delivers a forceful yet intimate performance that expresses his character's sincerity and the sinister undertow of his methods. Sundance could use more movies, like "Experimenter," that are adventurous in form and thought, not just in subject.
• New York Magazine: Experimenter is uncannily beautiful. Milgram talks to us, shows us things. He puts his work in historical context. He expounds on the role of obedience in turning individuals into instruments of the state — as in Nazi Germany. The word reflective suggests a slowdown or cessation of action proper, but Experimenter is busily, thrillingly reflective. Its artificiality makes it seem even more alive, more in the present tense.
• TheGuardian.com: Sarsgaard stars in this smart and unsettling exploration of Stanley Milgram's questionable experiment testing people's allegiance to malevolent authority, and potentially exposing the dark heart of mankind.
• Villagevoice.com: 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.
• Screendaily.com: 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. Ultimately, Almereyda's smartly written script attempts to make up for its lack of traditional dramatic elements with continuous questions about Milgram's - and everyone's - ability to make a choice in society. These queries, about choice, will and morality, form the backbone of Experimenter, a film that, like the best of science, asks questions it can't always answer.
• Sean Axmaker, Parallax View: The committed work of Anthony Edwards, John Leguizamo, Anton Yelchin, Taryn Manning and others as the test subjects provides some of the most gripping and discomforting profiles in human anxiety and willing resignation to authority. And the contrast with the odd, almost forced joviality of Milgram's team (Jim Gaffigan, Edoardo Ballerini, Winona Ryder) makes it all the more lacerating. And that doesn't even begin to address the Twilight Zone debate over test morality with Dennis Haysbert and Kellan Lutz as alternate universe versions of Ossie Davis and William Shatner. I put this ensemble up against all that have been awarded by critics groups or nominated by the Screen Actors Guild.

The Hollow Point

Action, Crime, Thriller

Available on VOD: 16 december 2016

Director: Gonzalo López-Gallego

Cast: Patrick Wilson (The Conjuring, Insidious, Watchmen, Fargo II), Lynn Collins (X-Men Origins Wolverine, John Carter), Ian McShane (John Wick, Ray Donovan, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides ), John Leguizamo (The Lincoln Lawyer, John Wick, Kick-Ass 2, Ride Along), James Belushi (According to Jim, K-9)

An aging retired sheriff (Ian McShane) with violent tendencies and his young replacement with a dark past (Patrick Wilson) must join forces to protect the residents of their town and investigate the source of a botched Mexican arms deal that leaves several dead and a bag of money missing. As the story twists and turns, a mysterious and vicious cartel hit man (John Leguizamo) arrives in search of the missing loot, systematically eliminating anyone who crosses his path. After discovering that the new sheriff's girlfriend is on the hit man's list, the lawmen must abandon their law enforcement ideals in order to even the playing field.

Reviews

• Hollywoodreporter.com: An over-the-top, heavily stylized B-movie-ish mash-up of modern Western and bloody thriller, The Hollow Point sees U.S.-based Spanish director Gonzalo Lopez Gallego (The King of the Hill) seeking to bring a new angle to the bad men in the badlands genre. As homage, the film is visually striking, littered with moments of real cinematographic intelligence, and always watchable, in a nasty sort of way. Bloody fun in the badlands.
• Variety.com: Wilson is persuasively resolute as the sheriff, and Belushi does sweaty desperation like a pro. But McShane effortlessly overshadows both of them with a flamboyantly mannered performance charged by alternating currents of contemptuous sarcasm and pessimistic gruffness.
• Culturefix.co.uk: A brutally entertaining thriller that allows McShane and Wilson to deliver some badass cool.
• We Got This Covered: a blazing contemporary western that finds pleasure in punishment.
• Thepeoplesmovies.com: Patrick Wilson and Ian McSha take on the cartel in contemporary western meets Mexploitation flick. Director Gonzalo López-Gallego ensures this is a fun, action-packed trip even when navigating through Nils Lyew's overcomplicated narrative. The Hollow Point is nonetheless a brutally entertaining thriller that allows McShane and Wilson to deliver some badass cool. 4 out of 5 stars.
• Kneelbeforeblog.co.uk: Wilson and McShane are the high points of this film. Their buddy chemistry is completely on point and there is lots of great dialogue between the two of them. Each of them can give as good as they get from the other and there are plenty of laughs too be found in their interactions. James Belushi has a memorable turn as a duplicitous used car salesman and John Leguizamo is excellent as a machete wielding Mexican hitman.
• Flickfeast.co.uk: With a number of great lines scattered throughout the script, even if it's just a running joke regarding people uttering the word asshole after their first encounters with Wilsons character (who has just returned to the town after some time away), and a few moments of white-knuckle tension, this is everything you could want from a crime thriller/neo-Western. As well as Wilson and McShane, the film also boasts some excellent performances from Lynn Collins, John Leguizamo, and James Belushi. The last one may be the biggest surprise, but it's possible that this is the sort of role he's just been waiting for over the past few years. Is it worth mentioning that McShane almost steals the movie? Yes, I think it is, because he gets many of the best moments.

The Infiltrator

Crime, Thriller

Available on VOD: 5 januari 2017

Director: Brad Furman

Cast: Bryan Cranston (Argo, Trumbo, Breaking Bad), John Leguizamo (The Lincoln Lawyer, John Wick, Kick-Ass 2, Ride Along), Diane Kruger (Inglourious Basterds, Unknown, The Bridge), Benjamin Bratt (Miss Congeniality, Traffic, 24: Live Another Day)

Amidst the lavish excess of the 1980s, Robert Musella became a pivotal player for drug lords cleaning their dirty cash. He traded on mob connections, to become the confidant to scores of the international underworld and the bankers who enabled them.

However, Robert Musella was, in fact, the undercover persona of Special Agent Robert Mazur: a US customs official who went further than any before him. Laying his life on the line, he infiltrated the globe's largest cartels and discovered just how deep into society their influence extended. Welcomed into an inner-circle of violence and corruption, Mazur found himself in the tight embrace of those he had promised to take down.

Based on the true story of a fearless undercover agent, THE INFILTRATOR is a heart-stopping account of one of history's most elaborate stings. The operation reeled in key players in a chain stretching all the way to Escobar. Their arrests would lead to the collapse of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International and shake the black economy to its core.

Reviews

• De Telegraaf (★★★1/2): Bryan Cranston maakt die voortdurende innerlijke tweestrijd op een sublieme manier voelbaar. Mazurs gevaarlijke werk The infiltrator bij vlagen angstwekkend spannend.
• De Volkskrant (★★★★): The Infiltrator is op zijn best als die juist doodeng is. De lol van The Infiltrator is te zien hoe Mazur/Musella zich uit de gevaarlijkste situaties probeert te bluffen. Kameleon Cranston is en blijft een dubbelrollenspecialist, die van rol kan wisselen alsof hij een knop omzet.
• Trouw (★★★★): Cranston is uitstekend als de man die in uiteenlopende jaren-tachtig-outfits en met altijd licht bezorgde blik een identiteit aanneemt waar ook ineens een verloofde (Diane Kruger) in moet passen.
• AD(★★★): Bryan Cranston is het sterkste punt in deze thriller vol synthetische maatpakken, donkere pilotenbrillen en vette snorren. Hij speelt wederom overtuigend een man die op de grens van goed en kwaad balanceert.
• Cinemagazine.nl: Cranston is in topvorm, maar ook Leguizamo, Kruger en de cynische Amy Ryan ('Birdman') weten in de bijrollen te overtuigen. Met een speciale, eervolle vermelding voor good old Olympia Dukakis, die opdraaft als een perfect gecaste tante Vicky. Twee uur en zeven minuten entertainment, kom daar nog maar eens om. Het advies? Gaat hem zien on the big screen.
• Filmgeek.nl: Zeker een spannend kijkje in de wereld van 'geld, undercoverwerk en cocaïne'.
  Filmvandaag.nl: Niettemin levert Cranston puik acteerwerk dat alleen wordt overtroffen door John Leguizamo als zijn rechterhand Abreu. Met The Infiltrator levert de regisseur van onder meer The Lincoln Lawyer en Runner Runner zijn beste werk tot nu toe af.
• Empire.com: Often gripping, and elevated by Cranston's superb central performance.
• Variety.com: Bryan Cranston gets a film role worthy of his ability to break bad in a tensely exciting true-life drama of undercover drug agents. The Infiltrator" creates enthralling suspense and intrigue out of the drama of what undercover agents do, but there isn't a moment in it that makes danger looks falsely seductive. The power of Cranston's performance is that he captures the deep torment that deep cover can bring. [He] gives the most authentic and lived-in performance as an agent pretending to be a criminal that I have ever seen. Kruger matches him, beat for anguished beat, and John Leguizamo gives a pinpoint performance as Bob's low-life informer colleague, whose slovenly flakiness turns out to be, itself, a kind of cover.
• Hollywoodreporter.com: Cinematographer Joshua Reis' experience on horror movies serves him well in his first major theatrical feature: from the garish palette of a bowling alley to set-piece interiors of the ostentatiously wealthy to the terrifying murk of a Santeria ritual that ends very badly, he finds the dread in each widescreen composition. Mostly it's in Cranston's eyes, ferociously undimmed. As a U.S. Customs agent leading an undercover sting of his own devising, Cranston turns every moment of duplicity, which is to say nearly every scene of The Infiltrator, into an emotionally textured high-wire act.
• TheWrap.com: Director Brad Furman ("The Lincoln Lawyer") re-creates the mid-1980s with telling fashion and coiffure details, bolstered by a great funk soundtrack. Joshua Reis's terrific cinematography, aided by the authentic-looking production design of Crispian Sallis, intensifies the sense of place and time. Drug thrillers can be among the more predictable genres — plenty of sleaze, nasty threats and grisly whacking, and, of course, the obligatory scenes at strip clubs. "The Infiltrator" follows some of that played-out playbook, but also effectively dials up the nerve-wracking tension. What elevates it to a higher level is the quality of its key performances, by Cranston, Leguizamo, Kruger and Bratt. Amy Ryan is also top-notch in a smaller role as Bonni Tischler, the trio's brassy boss. One of the most memorable supporting performances comes from Yul Vazquez, as sociopathic money launderer Javier Ospina.
• nospoilerreviewz.com: engrossing, well made, extremely well acted and very, very intelligent.