Good Dick: Critic Reviews

Dysfunction beguiles in Good Dick, a perverse romantic comedy whose coarse title belies its tender heart.

Widely liked, but it passed me by.

As irritatingly monosyllabic as its characters, this indie 'romance' -- the quote marks aren't an accident -- feels over-workshopped and false at almost every point.

An annoying example of self-therapy posing as art.

A short and sweet anti-romantic comedy, Good Dick puts together a heav ily depressed young woman with a homeless clerk who rents her porn at a Los Angeles video store.

Alternately compelling and dramatically limp, the film scores points for exploring unfamiliar territory but lacks the emotional depth to make some very strange behavior believable.

Good Dick carries its messed-up, highly improbable premise so lightly and gracefully that it ultimately comes off as a sweet, plausible and curiously grounded love story.

A weird love story between two damaged souls.

...a lot more poignant than most of Hollywood's big-budget, star-studded takes on the subject.

One of the weakest competition entries at Sundance Fest this year, this pseudo romantic-erotic feature promises more than it can deliver, and after a cute beginning falls apart.

Surely some of the young woman's porn videos would make better viewing.

In another movie, the boy who pursues this girl would be a serial killer.

All of the most annoying elements of independent cinema are on full display in Good Dick, a painfully awkward attempt at...well, I'm not sure what exactly.

The independently minded have spirits to aflame.

Marianne Palka's comedy, which she wrote and stars in, lacks the script, acting and the laughs to rise in the marketplace above similar Sundance-style fare, despite the sado-masochistic streak.

Ultimately, the body part that gets the most play is the mouth, with the hyphenate and her personal-professional partner Ritter trading the sort of sub-Cassavetes banter that screams self-written acting exercises.

Good Dick manages to be a squirmily charming romantic movie, chockablock with surprising details.

A distinctly unlikable movie about dislikable people, writer/director/actor Marianna Palka's mumblecore version of dysfunctional romance is the most unromantic picture of the year.

Mostly the movie is eccentric and edgy in childish ways, relying on offhand shock and predictable revelations.

Another indie that wears its quirks and gritty "realism" a little too proudly.

Unfortunately, Good Dick is all high-wire act, determinedly thwarting the expectations of its genre but unable to present a wholly successful alternative to romcom conventionality.

Palka has an eye for authenticity -- the bland LA apartments, growling traffic and isolation of living in a city that requires people to make their own happiness.

Despite an ambitiously dark premise, the writing isn't sharp enough despite a leavening courtesy of sub-High Fidelity-style joshing among the video geeks.