Film
Mad to be Normal
- Director
- Robert Mullan
- Certificate
- 15
- Running Time
- 105 mins
Back in the swinging sixties, maverick Scottish ‘anti-psychiatrist’ RD Laing (David Tennant) cuts a suitably radical dash, establishing Kingsley Hall in East London as a medication-free community for those seriously affected by schizophrenia and feeding his patients on acid. To the counter-culture, he’s a hero – Britain’s very own Timothy Leary, in fact. The medical establishment thinks he’s a menace.
Robert Mullan‘s suitably psychedelic first feature as writer/director centres on those Kingsley Hall experiments, with a terrific central performance by Tennant. It’s a part-fictionalised biopic, with Mad Men‘s Elisabeth Moss as Laing’s lover Angie (who didn’t actually exist) and dependably classy supporting performances by Michael Gambon and Gabriel Byrne. This screening is presented in partnership with Freedom of Mind.
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