AVClub: With his slightly reptilian gaze and carefully measured vocal cadence, Peter Sarsgaard makes an ideal Stanley Milgram in Experimenter, irrespective of any resemblance (or lack thereof) to the real-life Milgram. Milgram may well have been a warm, loving fellow who positively radiated empathy, but that’s not the impression that writer-director Michael Almereyda wants to convey. Rather, he enlists Sarsgaard to depict the popular notion of a scientist like Milgram, in order to explore fairly abstract ideas regarding ethics and objectivity. The film bears the subtitle The Stanley Milgram Story, but it’s most effective when it strenuously avoids biopic conventions, focusing intently on the man’s controversial professional life.
