MK Ultra

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.

Started out promising. But quickly showed no actual plot. Sadly it could have been good ..... the end was so unbelievable. This was just a total loss on where it seemed like the movie was going. I thought you were going to see some crazy studies done, which psychedelic drugs and behavior said they caused. Then next thing you know people are out of the study you don't even know why. You don't get to see what happens to people in the study, weird scenes with the guy and his wife. It's literally all over the place and nowhere at the same time. By the time you get to the end he realized how much time you wasted watching this movie.

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.

I like the lead actor that plays the doctor; this was a gimmick and I feel for it.

This is not just low budget. You can do a lot with a short changed budget. Even in the opening; there should not have just been a 1:1 old video playing. There were no effects used; not even a ken burns effect or something. The CIA guy has huge nose hairs coming up from pretending to snort cocaine. This is super obvious against a light colored background. NOBODY looked at this film after it was put in the can. The lighting is terrible in every indoor scene and the shadows are not managed at all.

FIFTEEN MINUTES IN... I had to hit the ejector button. I am not going to waste my time watching a movie that was not worth a second look to the people that made the dang thing.