Manderlay

Name: Manderlay
Genre: Drama
Released: January 27, 2006
Duration: 139 min
Rating: 46

2006

METASCORE

Mixed or average reviews based on 29 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 63 Ratings

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6.9

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6.9	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 63 Ratings

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Manderlay

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Movie Details & Credits

IFC Films | Release Date: January 27, 2006 | Not Rated

Summary: The second installment in Lar Von Trier's United States trilogy, Manderlay centers on a plantation in 1933 Alabama.

Director: Lars von Trier

Genre(s): Drama

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 139 min

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Critic Reviews

Empire David Parkinson

Unstintingly raw and cynical, this disconcerting and deeply affecting State Of The Union treatise regularly comes dangerously close to caricature. Read full review

Michael Wilmington

The acting has the bravura stage eloquence of Broadway Shakespeare and the movie is narrated, beautifully, by John Hurt. Read full review

Stephen Holden

To warm to Manderlay, the chilly second installment of Lars von Trier's not-yet-finished three-part Brechtian allegory examining United States history, you must be willing to tolerate the derision and moral arrogance of a snide European intellectual thumbing his nose at American barbarism. Read full review

Michael Ferraro

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. Read full review

Todd McCarthy

The subject being race relations, Manderlay is bound to stir considerable debate in intellectual circles, but given the director's abstract style and use of characters to enact an agenda, it's a discussion that will exclude the general public, who will ignore it as they did "Dogville." Read full review

James Berardinelli

Plagued by moralizing so strident and a style so artificial that the story never has a chance to speak to an audience. Read full review

Joe Morgenstern

Hate is too strong an emotion to spend on such a clumsy, bloodless broadside against human foibles in general and American follies in particular.

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User Reviews

AntonC.

Mar 30, 2006

Even wittier and more precise than Dogville.

1 of 1 users found this helpful

AliC.

Jan 30, 2006

A fantastic film - it's just got the low mark because the US critics so far covered can't handle a depiction of America that is less than flattering (yet are happy to watch US films which mock/patronise other countries). Von Trier can occasionally be childish but here his premise A fantastic film - it's just got the low mark because the US critics so far covered can't handle a depiction of America that is less than flattering (yet are happy to watch US films which mock/patronise other countries). Von Trier can occasionally be childish but here his premise and politics are spot on. Great.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful

R.G.

Aug 8, 2006

I ve seen it once, but i was just as taken back as when i saw dogville. Von Trier is a genius who uses allegory of slavery to portray the events going on in the world right now. Using the past to present current events, is highly affective with the actors all on top of their games. As is theI ve seen it once, but i was just as taken back as when i saw dogville. Von Trier is a genius who uses allegory of slavery to portray the events going on in the world right now. Using the past to present current events, is highly affective with the actors all on top of their games. As is the cinematography and the setting, which takes place on a stage. Every problem that comes with grace taking over the plantaion reflects the past and present of policies by USA that affect the world. Questions of exporting democracy and institutions like the world bank arise in the middle as the film. i can go on and on about layers and layers of issues. The dark humor of von trier is at its best and the i cant wait for the next one in the trilogy.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful

NickiR.

Feb 2, 2006

I don't know whether you have to be European to like this movie, but Trier has made it all about acting and story. I guess a lot of people have problems with that. And by the way : it's not only about America!

0 of 0 users found this helpful

JacobD.

Aug 19, 2006

An amazing and important film. However, I don't think it's quite as brilliant as Dancer in the Dark, Breaking the Waves or Dogville.

0 of 0 users found this helpful

NickTheCritick

Nov 5, 2021

This movie is a sequel of Dogville and follows the story of Grace and her father with his group of gangsters after they burnt the small town of Dogville. The movie is beautifully shot in the same style Dogville was. Anyway I felt this story to be a little banal and full of clichés. It turnsThis movie is a sequel of Dogville and follows the story of Grace and her father with his group of gangsters after they burnt the small town of Dogville. The movie is beautifully shot in the same style Dogville was. Anyway I felt this story to be a little banal and full of clichés. It turns out to be a forced sequel of a great movie that didn't necessarily need one. It still remains a good movie.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

DJKyosti

Feb 2, 2006

This film is absolutely vile. I have been a Lars Van Trier fan from the start, but he has finally gone completely off the rails. No doubt about it: the U.S. was founded on and continues to perpetuate racial supremacy, and despite the 13th Amendment, the 14th Amendment and the Civil Rights This film is absolutely vile. I have been a Lars Van Trier fan from the start, but he has finally gone completely off the rails. No doubt about it: the U.S. was founded on and continues to perpetuate racial supremacy, and despite the 13th Amendment, the 14th Amendment and the Civil Rights Act, this country still reeks of the badges of slavery and often appears to be a plantation. But, Lars Von Trier has not crafted an interesting, intelligent, coherent, or even entertaining film based on this. The acting is horrible, the script is wooden, and he already used those staging tricks in DOGVILLE. This film wallows in the worst kind of anti-Americanism without offering any solution other than hopelessness, without any real critique, and that all of this is perpetrated by a White, European director is even all the more obnoxious. He has essentialized his Black actors here to the coarsest of stereotypes, and despite the contempt shown for them, saves his worst for his female lead. Without giving anything away, I believe that her treatment demonstrates once and for all what many critics and women have said about Lars all along: he hates women. What ultimately could have been an interesting film with a nifty premise just doesn't work. It was a major disappointment for me, and probably will be to most people who see it. If the point was to provoke, then it succeeds. If there is any other point, then it fails. There is also, perhaps, a parable here about U.S. (and Danish) involvement in Iraq. Which also doesn't work. Ultimately, this is no Brectian discourse as one reviwer has suggested. Brecht was, afterall, a humanist and a teacher.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful

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