Roger Dodger

Starring Campbell Scott and Jesse Eisenberg
Written and Directed by Dylan Kidd
no website

IN SHORT: Writers shouldn't (necessarily) direct . . .. [Rated R for sexual content and language. 105 minutes]

Blessed be they who break the Rules of Filmmaking, for they shall be as Examples for the Throng of Reg'lar Folk who, despite knowing better, sometimes believe the quotes in the newspaper ads and head for the local Arthouse.

Blessed be the Arthouse, where patrons willingly pay for the privilege of watching 105 minutes of underexposed, close up shots of actors who tend to appear to be out of frame more often than not, for they shall be rendered nauseous by the experience.

Blessed be the Nauseous, for they shall give films like Roger Dodger blue ribbons at film festivals.

And the sad part about all this is that the Roger Dodger script -- the story of heavy duty player Roger Swanson (Campbell Scott); a $1000 suited advertising copywriter whose 16 year old nephew Nick (Jesse Eisenberg) comes calling for advice on picking up women -- has enough clever moments that, in the hands of someone other than a first time director, it may have worked well enough to bust out of the arthouse circuit.

Director Dylan Kidd kept his script for Roger Dodger close to the breast for the six years it took to find financing for his debut. Six years is more than enough time to consider how to shoot a film, so why Kidd decided to do just about every shot in some kind of close up is a mystery to us. Granted, most first timers go overboard with tracking shots or intricate staging, which is a complaint for another time, but Nelson's decision had every critic we know at our screening complaining of flipping stomachs.

Our stomach was fine. Our pains lay elsewhere -- and this is with the benefit of seeing the film a pair of weeks in advance of a release week filled with seven other films. The rating below was given while we were fully rested. Can you imagine going into negative numbers if we had been exhausted? Not us, though we could imagine a film so painful to view that it would keep us awake (as opposed to as so awful that it put us to sleep).

On average, a first run movie ticket will run you Ten Bucks. Were Cranky able to set his own price to Roger Dodger, he would have paid . . .

$1.00

Make like the title and dodge this one.

	Click to buy films by Dylan Kidd
	Click to buy films starring Campbell Scott

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