‘Taxi to the Dark Side’

Alex Gibney’s Oscar-winning documentary begins with Dilawar, an Afghan taxi driver who was detained and handed over to U.S. soldiers. Five days later, he was dead. Simultaneously exploring the Bush administration’s condoning of torture and the conditions it created for inexperienced soldiers, Gibney’s thorough, thoughtful film gives a voice to various people, including Afghan peanut farmers, White House advisors and Sen. John McCain, an opponent of torture. But the darkest sentiments come from U.S. soldiers, whom the administration used, abandoned and set up to take the fall for their experiments in behavior modification. (Laemmle’s Music Hall)