Audience Member
A sort of spiritual succesor to the wonderful film Dogville, Manderlay tells a story about slavery now with racism against black people as its main subject, in many ways surpassing its predecesor in many ways but failing in others. Overall, the movie is not only 1 hour shorter than Dogville, but it also feels more focused and the political and social messages it sends are nicely told under a creative and entretaining plot filled with characters that coudlve been fleshed out way better, but ultimately serve their goal, all wrapped up nicely under Von Triers signature dramatic style and all the high points of a historical drama about slavery.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/13/23
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Audience Member
Manderlay is a monumental load of art house horse shit and the worst film Lars von Trier has ever made. It is astonishing how after the arduously misanthropic, but stylistically audacious Dogville, von Trier could have made something this atrocious. Both films use a very minimalist style (both were shot on a single stage with very little set pieces), which alone may bore some people to death, but at least Dogville had even a notion of story, some fine acting and thoughtful, if cynical, ideas. Manderlay has none of these; an interesting concept perhaps, but the acting is anemic, the story uninteresting, and Anthony Dod Mantle, who usually is a very good cinematographer, seems to have been continually drunk while shooting the film. Say what you will about von Trier and his originality and audacity as a filmmaker, but this film is an excruciatingly boring botch-up that I will never, ever watch again.
Rated 1/5 Stars •
Rated 1 out of 5 stars
02/25/23
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Audience Member
An interesting, but character challenged politically charged "what if?". Like all of Trier's stuff, this is pure venting but it lacks the satisfaction felt from Dogville; going for narrow-mindedness over actually exploring the premise fairly. Still, it's a fine watch.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/26/23
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Audience Member
En skarp film med mange budskaber om USA. Bryce Dallas Howard, Danny Glover og Isaach De Bankolé gør det super, og trådn bliver fulgt meget godt fra 'Dogville'. Samtidig har filmen en mere skarp slutning end sin forgænger. Absolut en seværdig og mindeværdig film.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/04/23
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Audience Member
Upon watching Dogville one gets great expectations as to how well its sequel would be, I must say Manderlay is a slight disappointment, but only in comparison for one can never really be disappointed by a Lars Von Trier film. It's a bit quick-paced and more to the point, none of the mental exertions over vagueness veiling the moral questions of Dogville, that is revealed by Grace's realizations at the film's conclusion. The beauty of laying a town like Dogville on a stage set was its simplicity, it's very clear and clarified at the start, but Manderlay is not as simple and ordered, and a map to it is not constructed in the viewer's mind till half of the film is over. As for the issue the film addresses, this tiny box does not suffice. I'm all expectations (again) for the next town tale in Von Trier's America Trilogy, Hoping that the (A) is more of a (U) than an (S).
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
02/17/23
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Audience Member
Manderlay is a sequel to Dogville, although not as compelling, it tells a great political story. This time Grace arrived at a plantation where she decided to make some changes, but due to her being naive, inexperience and idealistic, she actually ended up creating more problems. Bryce Dallas Howard was great at playing Grace, but Nicole Kidman did a better job. The key messages Lars taught us are that: Communism never works, people are meant to be controlled and people are selfish in nature. Despite really enjoyed this film, I found the slaughter of a donkey unnecessary and the black paint on some actors' faces disturbing.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/01/23
Full Review
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