Comwayon
A Disappointing Continuation
RipDelight
This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.
Hattie
I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.
Fleur
Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.
suzpos
I watched this over 2 days and both times I had trouble sleeping afterwards thinking about this story and all its ramifications. As many reviewers have said, it is FAR too long, deliberately strung out and padded especially with a specious comparison to Hamlet which allows for numerous clips of the b/w Olivier film version. There is no real relation to Hamlet here even though both stories feature a Son who's Father has died in bizarre circumstances. The essential theme of Hamlet is one of obsession with revenge which leads to madness and slaughter.
In Eric Olsen's calm and witty and highly intelligent discussions I did not at any time detect a desire for revenge, only a desperate need to find an unattainable truth.Unlike many others I really loved the dramatised reconstruction - the cast was excellent and the film created a powerful atmosphere of dread and grief. It just seemed wasted as the viewer is constantly jolted out of the reconstruction and back to the documentary. Equally, the documentary, when it plays it straight and allows Eric to speak or shows archive film of the hearings, is also really poweful and it is annoying to be jolted out of that and back to the same dramatised scenes over and over.
By the way, thanks to the reviewer who mentioned Eric's Son, Stephan Olson. I think the ommission of any mention of him is quite underhand. The film strongly suggests that Eric has not had any successful relationships with women because of his obsession and that his personal life has been pretty empty but clearly he was with someone long enough for her to have a child with him and for that child to be a part of his family.
Joseph Waters
This was entertaining, informative and even disturbing, but it is something that you MUST watch. LSD and mind control experiments are just the tip of the iceberg. The CIA was willing to go to any lengths in its desperate fight against communism and this documentary proves it. Most Americans, I'm afraid, will be in denial about these things or simply not care, but it looks like the communists were right all along.
reallaplaine
Wormwood is one of those docu-films which could easily go by the boards and not get a lot of notice, and yet, it is highly relevant. Typically, for decades, Hollywood has depicted the CIA, the Central Intelligence Agency, as a dirty black-ops hand of the US government. The agency that lives by the mantra "anything goes" in the name of national security. Wormwood takes us back to 1953 when a scientist, Frank Olson, working on a top secret chemical warfare program, under the auspices of the CIA, suddenly dies and his death is tagged a suicide. His son, Eric, goes on to spend decades trying to force the truth into the open and asking for accountability from the government who is supposed to oversee this agency. This is a true story, the details and re-enactments are quite brilliantly done. The duplicity of the CIA is well-revealed. It's a compelling rendering about one man who goes up against the might of the US government in a relentless search for the truth, and of course, what he discovers in the end is sadly shocking. If you want a dose of reality, watch the film - it will make you question things.
abmarchant
. . . also obvious, tiresome, repetitious, and low-rent. Long, moody pauses substitute for meaningful dialogue. The interviews are edited to draw attention to words that the filmmaker can then clumsily twist. The cinematography is weighed down by endlessly recycled special effects.