***½/**** Image A Sound A- Extras A
starring Campbell Scott, Jesse Eisenberg, Mina Badie, Jennifer Beals
written and directed by Dylan Kidd
by Bill Chambers There’s a clever moment in Roger Dodger destined to slip past viewers that underscores the precision with which the film was conceptualized. Roger (Campbell Scott), the lady-killer whose nickname (which he shares with the stooge in Sidney Lumet’s Q&A) lends the picture its title, walks up to one of the glass walls of a meeting room inside his workplace to communicate with two colleagues on the other side–one of whom sticks the word “incubator” to his own forehead just as the scene cuts. Coming on the heels of a prologue in which Roger has demonstrated his persuasive albeit highly misogynistic grasp of sexual politics to his dazzled peers, this tableau is the movie in a nutshell: With a man of such confidence around, all others are hatchlings hanging on his tutelage. The film is subsequently about Roger passing a certain torch to his visiting 16-year-old nephew, Nick (Jesse Eisenberg), and Nick fighting his moral instinct to extinguish it, as when he practices Roger’s art of seduction on a couple of bar-hopping older women played by the pitch-perfect duo of Elizabeth Berkley and Jennifer Beals.
First-time writer-director Dylan Kidd, working inoffensively in a modified Dogme95 aesthetic, writes quotable dialogue and monologues that have the muscle of early Mamet without the attendant sameness of every character. Roger Dodger is destined to become fodder for auditioning drama-school students, though they should proceed with caution, since it’s Scott’s who makes Kidd’s speeches an unmistakable smokescreen for Roger’s insecurities (a notion reflected not only in Roger’s cigarette habit but also long-lens, handheld camerawork that frequently finds bystanders blocking a clean view of him), and palatable in the first place. Scott has finally found a role that gets him out from under the shadows of his legendary parents (Colleen Dewhurst and George C. Scott), and it’s a performance so finely-tuned that he should be up for the Best Actor Oscar in place of Adrien Brody, who does the work of a lighting stand-in as The Pianist no matter the hardships required in preparing for that role. If Kidd had resisted actively seeking redemption on Roger’s behalf (only to contradict himself in a finale that, for whatever you can say against it, does end on a great beat), Roger Dodger might be a little braver, but the film is too electric to hold a grudge.
THE DVD
Kidd supervised the bonus material on Roger Dodger‘s DVD release with production house Three Legged Cat. In his 2-minute introduction to the disc’s special features, Kidd champions the “film school in a box approach” while denouncing commentary tracks that favour the spotting of friends and relatives. (Take that, Farrelly Brothers!) Although he prepares us for an imposing, “technical” commentary, Kidd’s feature-length yakker with cinematographer Joaquin Baca-Asay is not nearly so alienating as advertised; a second session in which Kidd is joined by actors Scott and Eisenberg is indeed funnier, but both tracks cut swiftly to the heart of scenes in exploring such topics as on-set faux pas (Kidd’s refusal to wear headphones or look at the video tap) and visual inspirations (Edward Hopper obviously being a significant one). The film itself is presented in a 1.77:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer that renders the underexposed image perhaps easier to see than it was in cinemas, although the tweaks in luminance are subtle and do not injure the moody cinematography. The 5.1 Dolby Digital audio is very atmospheric during the company party and underground club passages but generally nothing special, given that Roger Dodger is a dialogue-driven film.
Kidd discusses the xylophone score with The Composer and the Mixer (7 mins.); the screenplay’s public reading in an L.A. café (which decided the filmmakers on Eisenberg, one of the participants) with Anne Chaisson, The Producer (4 mins.); and the shaky-cam effect (to nitpickers: “suck it up”) in The Executive Producer and the Director (5 mins.). More nitty-gritty than any of these interview snippets is the featurette Examination of a Scene: Opaline (not to be confused with one of Sundance Channel’s less informative “Anatomy of a Scene” specials). Here, we learn what the script supervisor’s job is/was in the context of the examined sequence, how Vaseline proved crucial to the make-up department, and other applicable details. Meanwhile, a deleted scene intended to bookend the cafeteria prologue contains sage optional commentary from Kidd. Last and definitely least as far as the disc’s video supplements go, in the ridiculous New York at Night: Roger Dodger Walking Tour (7 mins.), Eisenberg hooks up with fellow teenaged cast member Gabe Millman for some improvised on-the-town routines. Pages of DVD credits, text-based Roger Dodger quotes listed under “A Player’s Guide to Dating,” and the film’s theatrical trailer round out the generous Artisan platter.
106 minutes; R; 1.77:1 (16×9-enhanced); English DD 5.1, English Dolby Surround, French Dolby Surround; CC; English, Spanish subtitles; DVD-9; Region One; Artisan
