AllMovie

In the center of the recent Tribeca Film Festival scandal surrounding his film Vaxxed: From Cover-up to Controversy stands Andrew Wakefield, discredited and stripped of his medical license for his infamous study suggesting a link between the MMR vaccine, bowel disease, and autism. The Pathological Optimist takes us into the inner sanctum of Wakefield and his family from 2011- 2016 as he fights for his day in court in a little known defamation case against the British Medical Journal. Wakefield attempts to clear his name as the media-appointed Father of the Anti-vaccine movement. Director Miranda Bailey weaves a delicate portrait of a man who is The Pathological Optimist utilizing a never-before-seen, full access look at the man at the center of one of the biggest medical and media controversies of our times.