***½/****
starring Campbell Scott, Jesse Eisenberg, Isabella Rossellini, Elizabeth Berkley
written and directed by Dylan Kidd
by Walter Chaw Roger (Campbell Scott) is a fast-talking lothario with the usual laundry list of the insecurities, sexual or otherwise, that plague the modern man. But this far meaner and smarter version of The Tao of Steve–and what slight praise that is–takes a turn to the intriguing when Roger's 16-year-old nephew Nick (Jesse Eisenberg) appears for a few lessons on the art of pitching woo. In three brilliantly-scripted and wondrously paced sequences, Kidd points his Casanova Virgil and virginal Dante into the concentric circles of casual sex hell: the Happy Hour pick-up, the drunken party encounter, the brothel-bound hooker. A nigh brilliant stream-of-male-consciousness black comedy filmed with genuine flair and theory by first-time hyphenate Dylan Kidd, Roger Dodger is a film with Labute-ian teeth minus the accompanying misanthropy. It hits its marks with a feline surefootedness, eliciting career performances from Scott, Jennifer Beals, Elizabeth Berkley, and young Eisenberg, who, mark my words, will be a star. As satisfying and accomplished a debut since Richard Kelly's Donnie Darko, Kidd represents another in a new wave of Hollywood film brats with the chops and love to rejuvenate an American industry that has fallen into disrepute: they are the true successors to Zoetrope's romantic promise, and Kidd has a lot to live up to with his sophomore feature.
