Good Dick

I absolutely loved this movie! Pulls me in, every time I watch it! I found myself thinking, how these characters are very much like the people I see around me everyday. Complicated, interesting, emotionally twisted, flawed human beings, just looking to be loved and accepted.

Some people, like the character that (Jason Ritter) plays, are an open page when it comes to giving their heart away. Eager to take risks at love, even if that means opening your heart to a load of pain. Like an addict, knowing full well the consequences that will have to be paid seeking out this alluring drug, nevertheless, they are driven to seek it out, like a moth to the flame...

Ritters character, has an innocent charm about him. A boyish lovable quality, that is undeniable. You can clearly see the flaws in him, but strangely, you look away, taking a risk on him, in the chance that he will redeem himself once again. He is relentless in his efforts to win the heart and attention of this emotionally damaged, and yet highly intelligent woman. How many people do we know like this is our own lives??? These irresistible charmers that seem to win their way into our hearts against our own better judgment?

Palka's character, clearly a highly intelligent woman, who can verbally bash a man into a bloody pulp, has been verbally and sexually abused by her father, since she was a little girl. We later see her emotionally unravel, as Ritters character, bravely tries to pull her out from her isolated world, breaking the routine of her dysfunctional patterns.

I am constantly reminded as I watch this film, how real these characters are! They are not unlike so many of the dysfunctional people around us. Misfit, loners, abused and wounded by the predators of this world, left to cope with the damage they leave behind. It takes tremendous courage to open your self up to love and healing, after such abuse and betrayal of trust has been broken. These two characters portray that there is hope in the healing power of love!

Wow what a film! Marianna Palka is sensational, what comes to mind to describe a film like this is to imagine clerks blended with garden state with a little Piano on the side interwoven with a deeply serious subject matter that is tackled with intelligence, sensitivity and wisdom.

In my opinion its rare for someone to be able to obviously put so much of themselves into a film they have written, directed and starred in to have enough perspective to be clear in what they are expressing without it losing sight of itself. I never felt that with this film once, which is again another reason to recommend it.

I only reference those films because I hold them in such high regard. This film can be added to that list.

This is film making at its absolute finest. :)

Essentially a two-character play in three acts, "The Good Dick" strives for a different kind of modern take on relationships but doesn't quite hit the mark. Actress/writer/director Marianna Palka does not have much acting experience and it shows: she never allows us to see more than one note of her character and a pivotal scene with Tom Arnold as her father falls flat. Although this is a flawed movie, there is much to like here, however. Jason Ritter is the best thing about this thinly plotted indie "anti-romance." The scenes of Ritter and his video store pals (including Martin Starr, one Director Judd Apatow's regular players) provide a nice backdrop for the main romance. And, Ritter's desperate need for human connection feels sincere - you are rooting for him despite the seemingly impossible quest to reach Palka's damaged character. Viewers, however, may be let down at the end when things get wrapped up a bit too cleanly, like a bad Lifetime movie. I would have liked to see Palka's character struggle more with her own demons and find a way out that was less predictable and abrupt.

I just finished watching this and I thought it was very good. I watch at least one movie every day and I have to say, this film was very good but not perfect. I'd attribute the 1/10 votes on IMDb to haters only. Almost no film deserves a 1/10 and unfortunately fans will vote 10/10 to counter the bullsh!t 1/10 hater votes.

As for the story, of all the 6 Billion people living on Earth, I think it's quite possible that there are characters and situations such as those depicted in this film. Sorry to those who think it was unrealistic, but I do believe you've been conditioned to expect only certain hackneyed situations and characters in movies. I'd take THIS kind of film/story over the cliché bullsh!t of "guys with guns" that neophyte filmmakers seem intent on propagating.

It was hard to watch at times but it was worth it.

Great soundtrack. Great leads. Great casting. Great writing. Great direction.

I was a little confused by the casting of Tom Arnold. I'm not sure, since his role was so small, what good it does to cast a known celebrity in a film full of unknowns. He kind of stands out like a sore thumb at a time in the story where you really shouldn't be distracting from the storyline.

I'll be looking for more films from this director.

The movie is at times a bit slow, and the actress' acting a bit flat but that is part of the whole intriguing plot, which as you suspected at the beginning, is true.

If you're hoping to see porn in the movie just because the descriptions seem to want to tell you that the woman is a porn addict, think differently. The only skin that you'll see is her naked back a few times.

Although the plot unfolds very slowly, that's the point. There are some mental health and abuse issues here, and in real-time most similar interactions would never progress as far as this movie does by the end, and most likely far less successfully as the eventual turnout of the plot.

Interesting, intriguing, not Oscar-candidate but a strong entry especially considering the topic(s) involved.