The Stanford Prison Experiment

Starring: Billy Crudup, Michael Angarano, Moises Arias, Nicholas Braun, Gaius Charles, Keir Gilchrist, Ki Hong Lee, Thomas Mann, Ezra Miller, Logan Miller, Tye Sheridan, Olivia Thirlby
Directed by: Kyle Patrick Alvarez
Rating: R
Genre: Drama
2015

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Twenty-four students take part in a psychological simulation of a prison at Stanford. The experiment goes off in an unexpected and frightening direction.

Review:

Tim: I'd learned about the Stanford Prison Experiment at some point in my education, so I was somewhat familiar with the story. I was very intrigued to see it take place on screen, however. The Stanford Prison Experiment does a good job of portraying the famous experiment and keeping the audience engaged. Ultimately, though, the movie doesn't deliver as powerful a punch as it promised. Some of this is absolutely due to the nature of the real life events, some of it has to do with the way the movie was filmed. In the end, this is a good movie, but it stops there.

The prison experiment is fascinating for the look it gave the researchers into the psychological impact of prison institutions. The shocking results of the experiment heavily influenced approaches and thinking about prisons. Learning about the experiment, what the researchers hoped to achieve, and how it all spiraled out of control was very, very interesting.

The film has a good cast, although there isn't an A-lister in the bunch. Billy Crudup did a good job as the lead researcher. He played the morally ambiguous line quite well. He never felt over-the-top in his performance. Michael Angarano was a revelation. His performance was hands-down the best of the film. It was so challenging and occasionally frustrating to watch because of the nature of the character he played. I loved him in this film. I liked seeing Gauis Charles, even though he had a smaller role. Same can be said for Thomas Mann- I liked him, but wanted to see more of him. I've been incredibly impressed with Tye Sheridan for most of his career, so it was a bit of a head-scratcher that I didn't love his performance here. I still don't get the appeal of Ezra Miller and have no idea why people would cast him in anything. He wasn't especially strong here. The rest of the cast was decent. The biggest issue I had with the cast is that it was hard for individual actors to really separate themselves. Outside of Angarano, none of the characters made a major impact. They were a bit interchangeable and it was hard to tell them all apart.

The most interesting part of this movie is to watch it from a psychological vantage point. Trying to understand what went on in these college kids' minds was so enjoyable. It's a very interesting psychological study and that carried through in the movie. I will say that the film went out of its way to build up to some major climax. Even the DVD cover says, "They were given 2 weeks. It lasted 6 days." The movie continues to build towards a major confrontation, some crazy controversy that causes the researchers to halt the simulation. It does get to this point, but it's not as explosive or powerful as the movie leads us to believe. That's an example of reality getting in the way of good storytelling, but that's what you have to deal with. The ending of the film needed to be more powerful. The film isn't too long at 2 hours, 2 minutes, but you still wish for a bigger payoff.

The Stanford Prison Experiment does a good job of entertaining you while informing you about the event. This movie is worth seeing, especially for those unfamiliar with the real life story. However, as far as a piece of entertainment goes, the movie never gets above being good. This is partially because of the relative inexperience of the director (this is only his third film). Still, I don't want to be too hard on this film- it's a solidly made, entertaining film and you should see it.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 7



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