StunnaKrypto Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Infamousta brilliant actors, brilliant editing

Cristal The movie really just wants to entertain people.

KenToo First off, let me say that the gimmick of having no set does NOT work. It is a major distraction for the audience. Some have suggested not having the setting somehow forces you to pay attention more to the characters. That is totally incorrect. Your eye and attention is naturally drawn to what you know should be there, but is not. It is only when you have a set that actually fits the story that it essentially becomes invisible to the mind, and your attention is fully on the characters. This is simply a gimmick. It in no way is intrinsic to the story, nor does it advance it in any manner. It is as if the creators wanted to scream as loud as possible, "This is an artsy film!" Yeah, I heard you, but it still sucks.Next, to the story. The underlying theme appears to be that people in the depression who were poor and struggling to get by were horrible, mean and untrustworthy, and all men are closet rapists, and all women are closet rape-accomplices. In fact, none of this is true. On the contrary, the poorest people are often the ones who help one another the most, because the notion "there but for the grace of God" is most true for them. I frankly do not believe a town like that portrayed in this movie ever existed. I do not for a second believe poverty leads to this level of inhumanity but, on the contrary, poor people generally display the highest levels of humanity, and it is the wealthy who are more likely to stray from humanistic behavior. I believe the characters are unrealistic, 2 dimensional and contrived.Ultimately, the movie gets by with big name actors, a lame set gimmick and shock value from contrived and unrealistic characters and behaviors. It evades the critical derision it deserves by hiding behind the label of an "art" film, so if you don't like it, you are too dumb to get it. I think I recall a story about that very phenomenon and, spoiler alert, in that story it turned out the Emperor had no clothes.

AndreaBeaumont It's pretty obvious that Grace's name represents something more than just a random name. In whole of the film her behavior, actions, reactions are not something that would be considered as "normal" human behavior in such circumstances.She truly was the personified ideal, everything good that we all promote and imagine to accomplish in ourselves and in society. Her "arrogance" as her father defined it, is exactly it if viewed from humans' flawed perspective. But it is not arrogance! It is an ideal, and by calling it - no, by choosing to call it arrogance - we try to excuse our dishonorable behavior. That's why the ending is not logical nor justified. With choosing to step down on humans' level, get her revenge and condemn the people of Dogville to death, Grace actually negated herself and everything she was the whole time. Now, I would go even further and say, her gangster-family background is not relevant. It is shown throughout the story with her actions, and with her own saying "I've never stolen anything before. So now, now I have to punish myself. I was raised to be arrogant. So, I...I had to teach myself these things." It is clear here that no matter where she comes from, she is her own person, creates herself, is responsible to self only. There is one other sentence: "If she had acted like them she could not have defended a single one of her actions and could not have condemned them harshly enough". But it is only at the ending that Grace finds herself for the first time, at position of power - and she chooses to behave just like the flawed ones. By judging them to their own standards she actually goes against her own nature.If the acting is right (and I don't doubt that) she watches the executions and cries, but as there is horror there is also some satisfaction in her - seems like a transformation of personality is taking place. This is interesting also from the gnosticism's point of view. If Grace is grace (Sophia), would the ending symbolize a gnostic phenomenon of "Sophia's fall from grace"?Should they all be punished? Yes, definitely. By their own standards? Of course. But is it up to her to get down on their level as soon as she got the power and do the executioner work? In the ending, what becomes of Grace? And what is done to grace? Was there ever any, or is it the same as the writer who never wrote any.

willwoodmill Lars Von Trier is one of my favorite directors of all time, so I went into this film expecting to like it, but I was not expecting this film to be (arguably) his best. Like all of his other films, Dogville was very dividing among critics and audiences (even though it is one of his better received). Some praised it for being groundbreaking and innovative with its minimalist approach to set design, and deeply emotional and moving with its incredibly human characters, while others criticized it for being tedious, melodramatic, pessimistic, and of course the classic Von Trier criticism, pretentious. That word gets thrown around a lot, pretentious, and rarely do people even know what it means, it means adding greater meaning or importance to something then is actually possessed. And believe me Dogville never tries to be more important than it actually is. But what is Dogville about? Well if you somehow didn't already know and are reading this review I'll give a brief summary, Dogville is about a very small town up in the Rocky Mountains, that doesn't receive any visitors and is essentially shut off from the rest of the world (minus a radio and a telephone). In this small town a strange girl appears one night seeking shelter from some strange men that are after her, after the town reluctantly accepts her, she pays them back by doing small things around town that, as the film says, don't really need to be done. The film then explores the nature of how a community functions, moral convictions, Justice, and punishment. As the heroine tries to live her life in the small town of Dogville. Nicole Kidman plays the heroine, Grace Margaret Mulligan, with a performance that is able to rival björk in dancer in the dark, or Emily Watson in breaking the Waves. But she is not the only great performance in the film, all of the supporting roles, even minor characters are noteworthy, and it is basically impossible to talk about Dogville and not talk about the set design, I hinted at it earlier, but the really is nothing like it. There is only one set in the whole film and that is the town and that is just a big empty space with chalk borders drawn on the floor and a few props her and there, of course in the reality of the film it is a real town, but to us the audience we see everything wide open we are entering their small world, just like Nicole Kidman.9.3/10

cyberskate This is a differently stylized cautionary tale. It is a morality play done in the format of a staged play. Using a minimalist set design, the film allows each actor to showcase their skills. Examining the symbiotic interplay of community personas and their more benevolent. characteristics, they are soon to give way to the darker, secret agendas of each. Motives, so it would seem, have sub-motives.Redemption finally comes in the end, which the viewer finds after nearly three hours in this lengthy film. Perhaps it could have been made much shorter, but the movie never lagged, and was engaging to the finish.The worthwhile message is that progressive liberalism is but a illusion of altruism meant to protect and benefit others, while, in truth, is but a self serving vehicle for protecting oneself...from facing the truth about oneself.