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Manderlay
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Metascore
46 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 29 Critics What's this?

User Score
7.5 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 30 Ratings

Your Score
10 out of 10
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  • Summary: The second installment in Lar Von Trier's United States trilogy, Manderlay centers on a plantation in 1933 Alabama.

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14 out of 29
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 29
  3. Negative: 9 out of 29
  1. Empire
    Reviewed by: David Parkinson
    80
    Unstintingly raw and cynical, this disconcerting and deeply affecting State Of The Union treatise regularly comes dangerously close to caricature.
  2. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Michael Ferraro
    60
    If you hated "Dogville" because of the overage of narration or the length of time it took to finally get to a point, you'll be pleased to know that von Trier has lessened both those elements. With that said, it still has some of the same flaws.
  3. ReelViews
    Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    38
    Plagued by moralizing so strident and a style so artificial that the story never has a chance to speak to an audience.

See all 29 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14 out of 19
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 19
  3. Negative: 4 out of 19
  1. AntonC.
    10
    Even wittier and more precise than Dogville.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  2. Jeremy
    5
    Nice idea that feels routinely filmed and edited. There's not one single shot that equals Grace's arrival in Dogville, her bloody farewell or any other shot from Dogville.… Expand
    • 0 of 1 users said yes
  3. NathanT
    2
    "Dogville" was bad, in some regards "Manderlay" might be worse. The way that director Lars Von Trier can point his finger so solemnly and self-importantly at a country he's never been is insufferable. The look of the film, totally barren is tough on the eyes to watch. Can't a serious film be at least mildly pleasing aesthetically? I'd hope so. Me, I enjoy movies, that whether they are celebrations or mournings are high on the joys of cinema. Cinema is a visual art form after all. And Von Trier's message? Moronic obvious nonsense about slavery still existing 70 years later, the fact that capitalism itself becomes slavery, and comparing Grace's (Bryce Dallas Howard) fight to end the slavery at Manderlay with the U.S. invasion of Iraq. As in "Dogville", Von Trier has no concept of what he speaks. I think my negative feelings toward the movie were stirred up in the first moments when he presents a map of the United States and I said to myself, "He's never been to any of those 48 states I'm looking at." The nicest thing I can say about Von Trier's trilogy (it will culminate with the release of "Washington" next year), is that it is like anything else I've seen before it. The truest thing: I hope I never see anything even remotely like it again.… Expand
    • 1 of 1 users said yes

See all 19 User Reviews

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