Wormwood (Errol Morris, 2017): USA

Reviewed by Ish Malik at AFI Film Festival 2017, Los Angeles

Wormwood by Errol Morris is a short series that sheds light on the murder of Dr. Frank Olson. Wormwood shows a series of events and historic references in order to figure out the true happenings of that night in 1953.  The short documentary is very pleasing to look at and is extremely aesthetic in nature.  The cinematography of this film is what keeps the audience glued to their seats.

Besides just having an intriguing story line,  he editing, the music the shots and the CGI is what really gets warm wood it’s kick and spark.  For instance,  The editor provides us with several slow-motion shots, split screens, flashbacks, dates and more to keep it interesting and to make the happenings of the foam more clear to the audience.  Wormwood is very hard to follow but the director really tries to break it down and ease things and concepts for the viewers.  Furthermore, the music of the film really adds to the intense, suspenseful nature that the director strive to create.  The interview of the Eric Olson, the son of Frank Olson is what makes this film believable and realistic  Lastly the depictions of drugs is extremely aesthetic due to the advanced CGI effects used.  Apart from being scientifically asthetic, wormwood raises some very essential questions for the watchers of the film.  The bigger idea of wormwood is to ask ourselves if our lives are being controlled and observed by the government? can we truly trust do you authorities and the people in power when we know that all of their actions are driven by greed and their uncontrollable hunger for money?  The complicated nature of the film is to depict the real life complex ways of how the government actually functions.  The Wormwood was difficult to understand because there were multiple things going on at once required our attention. And that’s probably how it is when it come to upper level governmental crimes. Government crimes was definitely a neglected real problem and the film does a marvelous job at reviving or bringing up this topic that has been dead for several year.

This movie will open your eyes to real world uppee class and its extraordinary to look at!!! This is a must watch!