Written and Directed by Joseph Sorrentino
Starring Anson Mount, Jaime Ray Newman, Jason Patric, Alon Aboutboul
Unrated
Runtime: 98 Minutes
In theaters and on demand October 7

by Miguel Alejandro Marquez, Staff Writer

MK Ultra is a historical suspense film that follows the titular drug experiments that were conducted throughout the 60s. Dr. Ford Strauss, a physician who’s strongly dedicated to his profession and his patients, is thrown into a morally corrupt Mississippi Mental Hospital during the height of the counterculture movement. It isn’t until his research is taken from him, does he start to question the meaning of his controversial experimentations.

Joseph Sorrentino’s newest feature is a mature look on the drug culture that perpetuated the sixties, and the diverse victims that were affected. MK Ultra covers the issues faced by peoples of multiple backgrounds, lifestyles, and lives, all of which are crushed due to the United States’ government’s inhuman experimentation on the American public. 

Due to the weighty subject matter, and Sorrentino’s dedication to objective and honest storytelling, the film is very minimalist. The film evokes the same energy as the work of French film director Robert Bresson, with wide shots that say so much with so little and a conservative use of dialogue. The film is a unique, low-budget drama, rather than being a typical, overly-budgeted political thriller beholden to constant suspense. The objective and sober mise en scene, show that the film holds a level of maturity that is often absent in a Hollywood feature. The film shows how quiet and overlooked the tragedies found in our increasingly drug-infested/government-corrupt world. The political and cultural jabs at the sixties (much of which can be applied to today’s world), are all done subtly and with tastefulness.

MK Ultra falls into the same pitfalls found in other independent films. For independent films like these, there always seems to be a problem with the story’s structure. There is no defined goal for the protagonist and the narrative is directionless. There is no journey through the world of espionage and Project Midnight. But in a way, that is somewhat a good thing. MK Ultra is different. Like a Miles Davis piece, the film is subtle and graceful, yet still impactful. It still maintains its excellence and laser focus in showing the raw nature of its subject matter, even during its high and low points. 

Beside the mediocre plot, the only element that weighed MK Ultra down was its music. It is a locked-down drama set in the back rooms of a mental asylum about internal drama. The film isn’t a suspense piece until the very end. The music, for the most part, should have matched the mature narrative. Instead, the music was manipulative and inorganic to the story being told. Sorriento should have had moments played out on their own. Sorriento should have highlighted and built up natural sound effects instead, and used sound design to his advantage, rather than the film’s use of an average, heard it before, score. 

The other strong, immediately recognizable element in the film, that desperately needs to be pointed out, would be the editing, which harkens to the editing style of current era Lars Von Trier. The little vignettes, the montage of training videos, news reports, and historical serials, gives the audience a window into the naive and unknowing minds of sixties era American citizens. They are a gateway to the world, and an insight to the disturbing attempts of justification found in government secrecy. These are very brief, yet impactful moments that aid in the film’s structure.

MK Ultra is a hodgepodge of different movies that exist in this extremely small, yet ever growing subgenre of cerebral, transgressive sixties period films about experimentation. Ultra holds the elements found in other films of the same theme, intentional or unintentionally, such as the intensity and intrigue found in Matt Johns’ Operation Avalanche, the moral and ethical conundrums posed in Rick Alverson’s The Mountain, and the dramatic shifts in tone spread across One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. All of this is found within MK Ultra’s appropriately short run time. 

MK Ultra isn’t a complex composition, but it is definitely a delightful experiment in sight and sound. It is a sophisticated little film that starts slow, but ramps up to its loud and deadly conclusion. Definitely a fun watch for those who are intrigued with the era, especially with the culture and corruption that controlled it. Watch it if you want a slow trip that has a gratifying conclusion.