Manderlay

Which might be said as well of last year's Manderlay , where apparently spastic camera swoops and hiccups and zooms (albeit noncomputerized) and raggedly mismatched shots were wedded to a voice track that functioned with an almost clocklike precision: as lean and purposive in its design as the visuals were all over the place ... ... Full Review

Because Manderlay is brave en ough to be out there topically and visually, with this disc I crave special features. The Disc: Unfortunately, the disc for Manderlay is bland because it contains absolutely no extras. Initially, the film is awkward. ... Full Review

She is now more action oriented, ready to do good rather than just be good, and she's no longer afraid of harsh tactics. Howard brings a different kind of physical power to the character, one that is well suited to Grace's current state of mind. ... Full Review

They stop by chance at an old plantation called Manderlay, behind whose gates Grace discovers a black commune living as the freshly emancipated slaves they were 70 years earlier. The African-American bulk of the cast is collectively as well as individually superb, every characterization memorably nuanced. ... Full Review

The Manderlay residents don't really trust her, though given the way she arrives you really can't blame them. This already controversial drama is yet another anti-American screed from Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier, who's become more than a little tiresome with all his cinematic bashing of the United States and its political policies. ... Full Review

Manderlay" is just as effective as "Dogville" in creating an arresting atmosphere where drama and performance are highlighted....derails whatever poetic social commentary momentum "Manderlay" is struggling to muster.....Dubious intentions aside, "Manderlay" is an engrossing piece of art-house cinema, relying heavily on talent to make its points..... ... Full Review

This is the strange, disturbing story of the Manderlay plantation. Grace believes that she has a duty to make it up to the slaves for injustices they have suffered at the hands of her kind: 'we brought them here, we abused them and made them what they are', as she argues to her father; and she decides that having liberated Manderlay, she will remain at the plantation until she has seen them through their first harvest. ... Full Review

as Grace soon learns, the white woman's burden at Manderlay is a heavy one.....It's more difficult to map the film's racial concerns onto any recognizable "America.....Manderlay 's slideshow conclusion is similarly confused, the kind of scene....The movie may not offer much insight into race relations in the U.S.... ... Full Review

Like Dogville, Manderlay is ridiculous on paper, but the witty narration-spoken again by John Hurt-never assumes otherwise.....Shocked and appalled, Grace marches into Manderlay with some of her father's armed goons to set things right..... ... Full Review

In underlining its point on the perils of nation-building, Manderlay may be a more inflammatory rebuke of American policy than Dogville :....It's an extremely cynical perspective, enforced by some disappointingly turgid melodrama.... ... Full Review