Indie movie Good Dick (set in a video store? Check!
Super-edgy title? Meh. Dick and Pecker did it
adjective-free) starts by exploring a question most current/former
video-store employees can relate to: what’s the best way to interact
with porn-renters? Do you avoid eye contact? Amp up the politeness? Or,
like Good Dick‘s hero (Jason Ritter), do you offer
recommendations? It’s too bad that writer/director/star Marianna Palka
takes this identifiable starting point, and grafts an implausible,
unpleasant “romance” between a caustic, agoraphobic incest victim
(Palka) and an inexplicably homeless Lloyd Dobler-wannabe (Ritter) onto
it. Pat breakthroughs and weird clit-jokes follow. Good riddance!
This article appears in Sep 3-9, 2009.