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Crazy, Not Insane

Play trailer 1:43 Poster for Crazy, Not Insane 2020 1h 58m Documentary Play Trailer Watchlist
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94% Tomatometer 33 Reviews 76% Popcornmeter 50+ Ratings
Psychiatrist Dorothy Otnow Lewis stirs controversy for her views on serial killers and the death penalty.
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Crazy, Not Insane

Crazy, Not Insane

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Critics Consensus

Crazy, Not Insane isn't as narratively disciplined as documentarian Alex Gibney's best work, but Dorothy Otnow Lewis' clinical analysis of murderous psychology may prompt unexpected sympathy for the devil.

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Critics Reviews

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Becca James Chicago Reader A forensic psychiatrist known for her controversial views on serial killers and the death penalty, Lewis is an absorbing subject. Dec 30, 2020 Full Review Neal Justin Minneapolis Star Tribune Focusing on Dr. Dorothy Otnow Lewis, a rebel psychiatrist who believed in multiple personality disorder long before her colleagues did. The videos of her interviewing mass murderers are riveting. Dec 30, 2020 Full Review Katie Rife AV Club It's a fascinating idea, enhanced by some hair-raising interview footage that could make the most skeptical mind question whether there might be something to Lewis' theories. Rated: B- Dec 16, 2020 Full Review Milana Vujkov Lola On Film Dr. Lewis is exceptionally empathetic, at the same time, she is painstakingly, surgically inspecting every facet of the perpetrators’ lives [...] like a true detective would (a parallel she would appreciate), tracing the villain origins of [DID] creation. Rated: 4/5 Jan 25, 2024 Full Review Sayan Ghosh The Hindu ...what intrigues them more is the age-old question which has never been met with a satisfying answer — what makes an individual indulge in prolonged periods of frenzied killing? Sep 27, 2023 Full Review Fernanda Solórzano Letras Libres Crazy, Not Insane approaches the topic of serial killers from what I believe is a quite necessary angle. [Full review in Spanish] Oct 26, 2021 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Agnes F Mindblowing findings from a compassionate psychiatrist. You'll feel sorry for serial killers. Really. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 06/27/24 Full Review pj m Intense, thought provoking. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member It is a documentary about Dr. Dorothy Lewis's work on the psychology of killing. However, the work mostly focuses on her study on serial killers and DID, the question of what motivates us to kill is not properly investigated as the doc rather chooses to focus on the cases with a history of abuse. I am not an authority about the matter, hovewer, I find it insufficient that only counter perspective to that of Lewis is an former goverment worker who had been portrayed one-sided. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/23/23 Full Review Audience Member Daring, schoking and mostly fascinating, this documentary is a inmersive exploration of human brain, and its behaviour in a world full of abuse, violence and trauma. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/27/23 Full Review william w Like the subjects who committed these crimes, this film is a muddled and messy piece of work. It ultimately has me questioning whether psychology (or ‘psychiatry' to be generous) is actually a science. Inner psychic states are still outside direct observation, no matter how many MRIs we might present, and interviews, like the position or speed of electrons under Heisenberg's gaze, can be highly subjective. I do say this mostly tongue in cheek though I have an old friend in the humanities at Yale who once seriously suggested psychology is not a scientific endeavor. Certainly psychiatry is a science at least, but the explication of scientific ‘truth' here leaves much to the imagination. The film itself begins with Nazis and ends with witch hunts. This is highbrow ressentiment on full display. Ever since Charles Manson hit the scene, intellectuals can't get enough of conflating victims and murderers. My position on this is that the question was decided by Primo Levi - the victims of murderers, no matter how many hypothetical ‘what if' mind games one cares to play, are not the same as the murderers themselves. Dorothy Otnow Lewis is a psychiatrist but by the end of the film admits she identifies with the witches burned at the stake both in old movies and reality. The filmmakers are stretching here to cast Lewis as some kind of visionary heretic but the truth of this film appears to be that she is mostly (even if not entirely) a hired gun for anti-death penalty litigators. This is a bit unfair and even cynical of me perhaps, yes. Still I find it fascinating that legal crusaders can, on the one hand, find that police (through suggestive interview techniques) will elicit false confessions, but yet can also present these "scientific" interview techniques of Lewis as valid and unimpeachable. Indeed while interviewing a professional executioner in his trailer park home, the presentation of elite class hopes for a better world juxtaposed with working class reality could not be more harsh yet even more invisible. Lewis is quite ready to judge people if it fits her theory. When the mother of Ted Bundy remarks that she can't wait for this whole thing to be over, this is seen as evidence of Bundy's abusive childhood. The possibility that this is a candid and very human response to tragedy is not considered by Lewis or the filmmakers, who offer only a judgmental ‘tut tut' from Lewis. The documentary does offer moments of counter-perspective but always framed as establishment types who are pro-death penalty. Ultimately, this film doesn't know what it wants to be. Is it about serial killers? Not really. Is it a scientific exploration of what makes people kill? Sort of. Is it a character study of Dorothy Otnow Lewis? To a degree. The only thing I can say with certainty is that the film advocates against the death penalty, yet even here, the film cannot escape its own contradictions. While suggesting that the death penalty is a ‘return to the dark ages', it begins by pointing out that in those same dark ages the mentally ill were not executed because madness was deemed punishment enough. Like dueling experts in a jury trial, I would suggest that viewers will take what they want from this haphazard and clumsy piece of work. If you are opposed to the death penalty already, there is nothing to change your mind in this movie. If you already have HBO, I'm sure this will be a deep and meaningful exploration of our unjust society in action. Personally I want my money back. I found it on the whole an unconvincing and mundane exploration of the anti-death penalty movement through the lens of one psychiatrist's rather scattered and unfocused body of work. Was Ted Bundy the product of incest? No, but Lewis is disappointed about that. How does this relate to her other work with brain damaged killers? She admits Bundy did not have severe brain damage. Certainly the suggestion that Bundy was dissociative is interesting. Are people born evil? Perhaps not. Is the legal system perfect? Of course not. Is that reason enough to ban the death penalty? I don't necessarily think so. Do psychiatrists make mistakes? Apparently so. Is David Cross at all connected with this movie? Aside from my guess that he is opposed to the death penalty, no. Are we entering the new dark age? Wait and see. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member This was an eye-opening documentary, well put together, cogent and fascinating, on how serial killers come about. Dr. Dorothy Otnow Lewis was a knowledgeable and empathic descriptor, showing audio and/or footage of interviews with serial killers along with more of the story. It was a completely unforgettable take on the forensics of the underlying foundation of the serial killer personality and process. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/26/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Crazy, Not Insane

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Cast & Crew

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Movie Info

Synopsis Psychiatrist Dorothy Otnow Lewis stirs controversy for her views on serial killers and the death penalty.
Director
Alex Gibney
Producer
Erin Edeiken, Alex Gibney, Ophelia Harutyunyan, Joey Marra
Screenwriter
Alex Gibney
Production Co
Jigsaw Productions
Genre
Documentary
Original Language
English
Release Date (Streaming)
Nov 18, 2020
Runtime
1h 58m
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