The Stanford Prison Experiment

A chilling and intense story of the depths and terrors of psychology. A fantastic ensemble, with outstanding work from Michael Angarano and Tye Sheridan, a phenomenal script, and a wonderful style and tone lead this to one of my favorites of the year. It's incredibly smart and uses fascinating details and story points. Don't miss "The Standford Prison Experiment."

The young cast of prisoners and guards were outstanding in this film. Many of the young actors in the film were familiar faces but very few of them have proven themselves. The cast of young men includes Ezra Miller, Moises Arias, Nicholas Braun, Logan Miller, Tye Sheridan and Thomas Mann. All of which deliver some of the best performances of their young careers. The highlight of the whole cast however was Michael Angarano, who becomes the most demanding and abusive guard of them all and becoming an easy character to hate. It is thrilling to watch the transformation of the characters over the course of the experiment where the identity is taken away from the prisoners through a number of methods and the guards go through effort to hide their true identity by hiding behind sunglasses and baton. Billy Crudup is great in this film as well. Phillip Zimbardo is one of the of the most knowledgeable but controversial psychologists of all time. Crudup also begins to see and change in himself as the film continues on. Crudup once again gives a brilliant performance.

The Standford Prison Experiments sports some harrowing shots, good performances by both Billy Crudup and Ezra Miller, but ultimately comes across as lackluster. There are some good realistic scenes, but the pacing in this movie is all over the place, and it was honestly hard for me to pay attention while watching this one.

The Stanford Prison Experiment is not a movie for everyone, some may find it boring other claustrophobic, but certainly its subject does not leave you indifferent. Its plot had already been addressed in other projects but had never focused on real people who lived through this experience firsthand. I enjoy it, I think that the theme is quite interesting and the director and his cast deliver good accounts, with the exception of Billy Crudup who apparently did not know how to portray his character.

If you can't tell by the profuse, thick hair on almost every actor, this movie takes place in 1971. A Stanford University psychologist (Billy Crudup) hired 24 student volunteers to play prisoners and guards in a simulated jail experiment. This fact-based story gets darker, as the roles they play get more intense. The cast of young up-and-comers does a good job, but things get too intense and stay that way. Even if the dialogue is taken from actual transcripts, the film's persistent seriousness becomes a dull dark throb, instead of building into any kind of emotional payoff. It's a fascinating study, but I remember 2010's The Experiment tackled it better.