Film

Experimenter

Name: Experimenter
Genre: Drama, History
Released: 2015
Cast: Peter Sarsgaard, Winona Ryder, Jim Gaffigan, Edoardo Ballerini, John Palladino

Michael Almereyda's biopic of Stanley Milgram is deliberately, delightfully strange: Peter Sarsgaard narrates straight to camera while painted backdrops slide past behind him, refusing the tidy prestige-drama treatment this story usually gets. It's less interested in recreating the shock-box experiments than in sitting with their unbearable implications about obedience, cruelty and self-deception. Cerebral, dryly funny, formally playful — for people who want their history lesson with a wink and a genuine chill.

TMDb rating

6.5

If you liked this

The Stanford Prison Experiment2015

The other famous 1960s-70s psych experiment that spiralled out of control, dramatised as a slow-motion nightmare of ordinary students turning into guards and prisoners within days.

But It plays it straight and grim where Experimenter plays with form — less clever, more punishing to sit through.

Compliance2012

A fast-food manager takes orders over the phone from a man claiming to be a police officer, and keeps obeying long after she should stop. Milgram's experiment, replayed as unbearable real-world fiction.

But Deliberately claustrophobic and humiliating to watch — it's built to make you angry, not entertained.

The Wave2008

A German teacher runs a week-long classroom experiment in authoritarianism to prove it couldn't happen again. It happens again, fast, and the kids build a movement before anyone notices.

But Blunt where Experimenter is subtle — it wants to alarm you more than make you think.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Obedience1962

It's not inspired by Milgram's work, it is Milgram's work — the primary document the entire film is built to reckon with.

This is the actual 45-minute documentary Milgram made of his real experiments — the grainy, black-and-white footage that Experimenter is dramatising. Watching the source material after the film is genuinely unsettling.

But No narrative shaping, no wit, no Sarsgaard — just real people doing a terrible thing on camera. Hard to watch, deliberately.

Hannah Arendt2012

Covers the Eichmann trial that plays on TVs throughout Experimenter, and lands on the same idea from the other direction: evil as bureaucratic, banal, and terrifyingly ordinary.

But Talky and philosophical — courtroom debate and lecture-hall arguments rather than drama.

12 Angry Men1957

A jury room becomes a pressure cooker of conformity, groupthink and one man's refusal to simply go along with everyone else — the flip side of Milgram's findings, dramatised beautifully.

But Nothing here about electric shocks or lab coats — you'll have to draw the connection yourself.

A Dangerous Method2011no page yet

Another stylish, talky biopic of a controversial psychological pioneer — Jung and Freud instead of Milgram, but the same fascination with theory colliding messily with real lives.

But More interested in psychoanalysis and sex than obedience and cruelty — a different itch entirely.

The Eichmann Show2015

Dramatises the TV crew who broadcast the Eichmann trial worldwide — the exact broadcast flickering in the background of Experimenter, now brought centre-stage.

But A modest TV movie with none of Experimenter's formal daring — solid, not dazzling.

The Report2019

Adam Driver spends years documenting how ordinary, credentialed people justified torture in the name of duty — a modern, infuriating cousin to Milgram's findings.

But Dense, procedural, and deliberately unglamorous — more Senate hearing than character study.

Denial2016

A courtroom battle over Holocaust denial that, like Experimenter, keeps circling the same question: how do good, reasonable people end up defending the indefensible?

But The weakest link here — competent but conventional, and the connection is thematic rather than direct.

Black Mirror2011

Same question Milgram asked — why do ordinary people go along with cruelty when given permission — restaged as dystopian entertainment rather than history.

A woman wakes up hunted through a town while crowds film her on their phones instead of helping — a queasy, twisty hour that turns bystander complicity into speculative-fiction horror.

But Nastier and more punishing than Experimenter, with a twist ending that recontextualises everything you just watched.

The Belko Experiment2017

Literally the same premise — authority commanding escalating cruelty and testing who complies — stripped of nuance and pushed to pulpy extremes.

Office workers get locked in their building and ordered, via intercom, to start killing each other or die themselves — Milgram's obedience-to-authority setup turned into gleeful, gory survival horror.

But Deliberately trashy and violent — this is the multiplex-horror version of the idea, with none of the film's restraint or intelligence.