...I wish this exceptionally talented filmmaker would put aside his
dog-eat-dog sadism and wallowing self-indulgence. Writing about Brecht
and Arthur Miller in the mid-1950s, theater critic Kenneth
Tynan
pledged, "I shall continue to applaud all plays that are honestly
frivolous, devoutly disengaged; but I shall reserve my cheers for the
play in which man among men, not man against men, is the well-spring of
tragedy."
Then as now, we need dogs that can rip the throat out of injustice, not
just bark up their own tree.
-- Manohla Dargis
"Seduced by ideas?" Los Angeles Times. March 26, 2004.
Review of movie "Dogville" by Lars von Trier