MK Ultra

Started off good, then sadly dived into a similar turf to canninbal holocaust showing us grim sexual, physical and mental torture.

You'd be better off reading Wikipedia to get the jist of the illegal program of MK Ultra than watch this boring, cult-like movie. The movie jumps around in places from 1 scene to another, then quickly snaps back to another torture type scene.

The psychiatrist appears to be shocked and bewildered the entire movie which is really irksome.

I wouldn't waste 90mins watching this movie, as I mentioned, there are plenty of sources on what MK Ultra achieved and conducted.

Attempt to qbtain allsorts of authenticity, a drama pseudo documentary styled look at projects done in the name of c.i.a., and psychriatic institutions, famous as well as infamous, dealing with psychedelic compunds to treat mental patients, or to leech information from enemy spies and soforth, using the force of lsd and other caleidoscopic formulaes to turn a mans brain inside out...

the actual issues are real and shouldve been covered so too, but the plot and acts are like a rambling tree of b-quality, and gives you just a minor clue of the severity of the deeds done back then

the task of making a film like this needs a lot of economic foundation to obtain credibility, especially when the audience is history nerds that knows the abc, and others like me the grumpy old man that wants more than just close ups shoots to hide the real world and pinups doing erotic yoga with cia agents that seems pretty skidrunning if you ask me, therefore i will not award this more than a 5, and that you can easily let this slip by.

In the 60's, the CIA is conducting mind control experiments using LSD. Dr. Ford Strauss (Anson Mount) is recruited by CIA agent Galvin Morgan (Jason Patric) to run experiments at a small Mississippi clinic. Rose (Jaime Ray Newman) is Ford's wife.

The style is faux documentary. It doesn't have much of a story flow. It's basically a lot of individual scenes of Ford's life and his experiments. It's trying for realism. There are a few interesting ideas and scenes. The transgender patient is most interesting. Mostly, it's rather dull until the last act explodes into gun violence. Through that whole section, I am most intrigued by Anson Mount and Jason Patric's similar looks. That's not a good thing. I don't find their struggle that compelling.

I like Anson Mount, as well as Jason Patrick (which, BTW, I didn't recognize until I looked at the cast). The subject is also one that has enormous significance: CIA special programs to experiment with LSD and other substances in order to break the human will and make tools out of people. The acting was good, too, from all of the people involved. The problem was the plot, going from creepy to boring and back again without an actual reason. And if that wasn't confusing enough, it was interlaced with old documentary footage.

In the end, it felt like the movie did not know what it wanted to be: a thriller, a horror, a drama, a documentary. I didn't dislike the film, but I wouldn't recommend it.

At first, I embraced the dry dialog, noir-esque filming style and inconsistent audio as a style choice in trying to make this film seem like it was made in the era of MK Ultra. But as the movie progressed (or should I say plodded along), I realized that there was little to hold on to. Many of the actors in this film were fantastic but were given very little to work with script-wise. The editing of the film, particularly in the final scenes, seemed very disjointed and not as an artistic choice. The addition of historical footage (documentaries, interviews etc) was great but tended to be stretched too long, making things drag along. While many complain about the film being more about the main doctor than MK Ultra, that is not my issue. It was just a poorly assembled film as a whole, despite having so many great components. For a fascinating subject, this film felt like a cinematic lobotomy. Wanted to like it but I just can't.