ROGER DODGER

A relentless womanizer maps out a strategy whereby his nerdy nephew will shed his virginity.


CAST: Campbell Scott, Jesse Eisenberg, Isabella Rossellini, Elizabeth Berkley, Jennifer Beals, Mina Badie, Ben Shenkman

DIRECTOR: Dylan Kidd

"Campbell Scott gives a star performance that is nothing short of mesmerizing ...Written and directed by a witty, observant newcomer named Dylan Kidd, the film centers on the neurotic fox trot performed nightly by New York's most sophisticated cads ...Mr. Scott manages to show the human frailty behind the mask of conceit, winning sympathy even when he is most irritating...I liked Mr. Kidd's script, but it's extremely talky--and while the talk is sharp, it can be wearing." -- Rex Reed, The New York Observer

"Scott has always been a powerfully contained screen presence, but this is the first time he's opened up all the hatches. He's in the movie almost continually, and yet he's never tiresome because he keeps wringing new variations on Roger's ghastly self-absorption...Kidd may think it's his civic duty to condemn Roger, but that's not where his truest instincts lie. His movie is most fully alive when Roger is bristling with battle plans. The dramatic arc of 'Roger Dodger' may be banal, but Kidd manages some marvelous moments." -- Peter Rainer, New York

"The role of Roger is a small coup for Mr. Scott, who is normally the quintessence of earnest sincerity on the screen. With a teaspoon of vinegar added, the same qualities this brilliant actor uses to project an empathetic sensitivity curdle into something smarmy and ferretlike, and his rich oratorical voice assumes the wheedling, coercive tone of a snake oil salesman...This small, pungent movie makes some missteps...Yet 'Roger Dodger' is still an extremely promising first feature...The movie, unlike its title character, treats women with respect." -- Stephen Holden, The New York Times

"Roger Swanson is the kind of mesmerizing talker who can take over a movie as surely as a great raconteur can dominate a dinner table, and in Campbell Scott the part has the kind of gifted, assured actor who can turn it into one of the defining roles of a lifetime...Written and directed by Dylan Kidd, this astute film not only comes up with convincing foils to counter Roger's attacks, but also displays an open-ended, non-schematic sensibility both welcome and unexpected...Still, it is Scott's work as the savagely articulate Roger, a tireless would-be seducer, bottomlessly self-confident and oblivious to rejection, that is the film's glistening and provocative centerpiece." -- Kenneth Turan, The Los Angeles Times

"An adroitly acted, crudely shot character study-cum-misogyny mudbath, 'Roger Dodger' proudly flaunts its membership in a bizarre subgenre of recent American indie: the post-LaBute-brute harangue...First-timer Dylan Kidd's film isn't Molièrian in its misanthropy, but rather as boneheaded as an hour of talk-radio hobgoblin Tom Leikis...Though Kidd's dialogue does calisthenics, and Scott and Eisenberg work like dray horses, 'Roger Dodger' avoids asking the thorny questions. As in, why is this insidious creep worth an entire movie?" -- Michael Atkinson, The Village Voice

"It's a portrait of a veteran Manhattan swinger, played with bitter cascading brilliance by Campbell Scott, who can talk the talk better than anyone else, only this time he's talking circles around himself--a blue streak of patter you can't stop listening to, even when it turns to poison... 'Roger Dodger'' is a little too programmed in its despair, but it coasts along on the jagged music of the modern lothario's song." -- Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly