Good Dick

Reviewer: Erin Donovan
Rating (out of 5): *

When in a state of terror, the brain begins to develop a series of processes to cope with the brutality. Watching a film as bad as Good Dick, I find myself first desperately clinging to hope, trying to find potential in any nook or cranny. Then the monotonous boredom reaches a near Zen-like state as my spirit begins to let go of any concept of there being a beginning or an end, a passive acceptance that what is happening merely is. Eventually, what breaks down the inner Bodhisattva is a profound sense of sorrow that there was a person whose mind generated not only these ideas, but wrote them down, and communicated them to the outside world.

Good Dick is the story of the unlikely romance between two people simply credited as "Man" (Jason Ritter) and "Woman" (Marianna Palka). He is homeless and she is borderline agoraphobic. Once a week, they meet at the video store where he works and she occasionally rents pornography. They have awkward exchanges about her film choices and through the power of terrible movie magic and even worse screenwriting, this all somehow leads to a profound emotional connection that baffles both his friends and any viewer. Man and Woman move in together and proceed to do and say horrible things to each other. Their cruelty is punctuated by long, boring scenes that could possibly be interpreted as happiness, but feel, to the audience, about as pleasurable as having a car door slammed repeatedly on your hand.

Even bad films require a lot of time and resources to produce. Therefore, even a critical review should criticize in a thoughtful way. But I'm truly at a loss here. This film is so bad I found myself writing notes like:
"It's great that she's taller than he is!";
"A female update on the Apatow fetishization of infantilism?"; and
"Statement about the decline of indie film: video store cashier is homeless?"

Marianna Palka serves as the film's writer, director and lead actress. Yet this creates no momentum or coherency from scene to scene, giving the feel that the characters merely limp to the finish line as the film's runtime winds down. Good Dick feels like an embarrassing overshare from a person too riddled with pretentious awkwardness to have any self-reflection or insight into depression or loneliness.

It's worth mentioning, however, that the cinematography is nothing short of stunning (and that better not show up anywhere as a pullquote). Newcomer Andre Lascaris' skilled work here lends Good Dick an undeserved credibility that has surely helped it sail through more than a few film festivals.

DVD extras include a gag reel, a featurette about the filmmaker's experience at Sundance and assorted trailers.