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Manderlay (2005)

tomatometer

50

Average Rating: 5.6/10
Reviews Counted: 98
Fresh: 49 | Rotten: 49

Manderlay may work better as a political statement than as a film, making its points at the expense of telling a compelling story.

31

Average Rating: 4.3/10
Critic Reviews: 26
Fresh: 8 | Rotten: 18

Manderlay may work better as a political statement than as a film, making its points at the expense of telling a compelling story.

audience

76

liked it
Average Rating: 3.6/5
User Ratings: 15,557

My Rating

Movie Info

The politics of slavery and the follies of nation-building highlight Danish director Lars von Trier's thought-provoking follow-up to the director's 2003 drama Dogville, featuring The Village's Bryce Dallas Howard in the role originally played by Nicole Kidman, and shot in the same stage-bound style as its predecessor. Shortly after leaving Dogville, Grace (Howard) and her father (Willem Dafoe) wander into a gated Alabama community still operating under the tenets of slavery. Appalled to stumble

Unrated, 2 hr. 19 min.

Drama, Special Interest

Lars von Trier

Aug 8, 2006

IFC Films

Cast

All Critics (104) | Top Critics (27) | Fresh (52) | Rotten (50) | DVD (13)

Dig that freaky symbolism!

May 12, 2006 Full Review Source: New York Magazine | Comment
New York Magazine
Top Critic IconTop Critic

If von Trier can't be bothered to get out more, he should at least consider picking up a book or just using some real imagination.

March 24, 2006 Full Review Source: Detroit Free Press | Comment (1)
Detroit Free Press
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Manderlay comes off as little more than a droning, embittered curiosity.

February 24, 2006 Comment
Denver Rocky Mountain News
Top Critic IconTop Critic

It's a movie with more surprising things to say than most about racism past and present.

February 17, 2006 Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune | Comment
Chicago Tribune
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The trouble is the angrier it gets, the more infuriatingly banal it becomes.

February 17, 2006 Full Review Source: Boston Globe | Comment
Boston Globe
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Even the basic look of the film -- it was filmed on a stage with every shot set against a bleak, dark backdrop -- underscores the filmmaker's position as master manipulator, in a laboratory, looking down at his mice running through his maze.

February 16, 2006 Full Review Source: Washington Post | Comment
Washington Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The second installment in Lars von Trier's trilogy, USA: Land of Opprtunity, is a maor disappointment

April 19, 2011 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | Comment

"Manderlay" shows von Trier learning from that film's stylistic mistakes to make an ambitious and thought-provoking allegory about the ways in which "slavery" in America was never truly abolished, but rather converted to a different condition of capitalis

April 15, 2009 Full Review Source: ColeSmithey.com | Comment
ColeSmithey.com

It doesn't offer much insight into America's race issues, which might seem at first to be its target, but it works very well as a metaphor for America's intervention in Iraq.

June 3, 2008 Full Review Source: Paste Magazine | Comment
Paste Magazine

The audio commentary by writer-director Lars von Trier and his regular DP Anthony Dod Mantle is full of funny anecdotes and technical insights, giving a flavour of the pair's bantering on-set relationship.

September 30, 2007 Full Review Source: Film4 | Comment

If this trilogy finishes up strong, this middle portion may come to be seen as the weakest, though it's still forceful and intimate in the von Trier manner.

September 27, 2007 Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | Comment
eFilmCritic.com

[It] raises interesting questions about what can happen in a democracy when its people are deeply corrupt. ... But likely to be more disheartened than enlightened.

September 12, 2007 Comment
Looking Closer

this Great Dane backs up his satiric bark with a vicious bite.

August 2, 2007 Full Review Source: Eye for Film | Comment
Eye for Film

A slightly more ponderous - if less dramatically satisfying - example of a Von Trier puppet show.

July 3, 2007 Full Review Source: Projection Booth | Comment
Projection Booth

Relying on a daring script as executed by A-list actors, offers a potentially transformational experience for any inclined to contemplate an introspective, gut-wrenching meditation on the intractability of the legacy of slavery.

May 26, 2007 Full Review Source: Upstage Magazine | Comment
Upstage Magazine

Relying on a daring script as executed by A-list actors, offers a potentially transformational experience for any inclined to contemplate an introspective, gut-wrenching meditation on the intractability of the legacy of slavery.

May 20, 2007 Full Review Source: DallasBlack.com | Comment
DallasBlack.com

Manderlay is shorter but just as dull, pretentious and condescending as Dogville.

March 1, 2007 Full Review Source: Film Journal International | Comment
Film Journal International

Manderlay loses in power what it lacks in novelty, even though it's more relevant than anything the year is likely to bring.

November 27, 2006 Full Review Source: AV Club | Comment
AV Club

I was intrigued by the intensity and audaciousness of Dogville, but Manderlay feels stagey, earnest, long and pretentious. Its grainy, shaky hand-held camera-work only adds to the monotony.

November 24, 2006 Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | Comment
Urban Cinefile

The audience's familiarity with the stylistic devices of Manderlay should allow the film's more reflective screenplay to shine through.

September 28, 2006 Full Review Source: Sight and Sound | Comment
Sight and Sound

... an anti-American rant that tediously plays out as a misplaced lecture by the pretentious filmmaker.

August 24, 2006 Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews | Comment
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

Fans of the film will want to opt for the Nordisk Region 2 disc, which boasts better image quality and actual extras.

August 6, 2006 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | Comment
Slant Magazine
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Manderlay

I really didn't think he'd top Dogville but I think Lars von Trier has here with Manderlay. The sound-stage concept still feels fresh and the change of actors almost adds to the next chapter of the American trilogy (At least what was meant to be a trilogy, it's a terrible shame another film will now not be made).

February 15, 2011
SirPant

Super Reviewer

Lars Von Trier repeats his famous and tedious Dogville formula. nevertheless, an interesting and thought-provoking microcosm.

June 30, 2007
pier007

Super Reviewer

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