The Stanford Prison Experiment

Det är en spännande film som på ett subtilt, stilsäkert sätt bygger upp en olycksbådande stämning.

A gripping dramatization, [the film] puts its audience in the same position as the head researcher [...]: We watch with equal fascination and dread as a group of fresh-faced [students] adapt with scary speed to the roles they’re assigned.

Alvarez achieves something that's reminiscent of Peter Brook's Lord of the Flies: His formalism fashions effective textural shortcuts to behavioral understanding that his remarkable cast fills in with chilling, convincing finesse.

...has a calm, queasy, clinical tone, the filmmakers hewing as closely to the actual events as they can. The approach works mostly superbly...

...[not] a particularly pleasant watch but [wholly compelling], and that you find yourself both fascinated by questions of how you would respond [...] and disturbed by the possible answers is a sign that it’s served its purpose.