Short Cuts: Dogville (2003)

Ambitious, and almost successful allegory of American tyranny and cultural subjugation as seen through the eyes of young Grace (Nicole Kidman), a wide-eyed innocent who seeks refuge in the small town of Dogville from a gang of ruthless mobsters. Captivating in so many ways (the acting, the sets, the music, the emotional of power of some scenes), director Lars von Trier (Zentropa, Breaking the Waves, Dancer in the Dark) ultimately fumbles Grace's story under the weight of too much symbolism, too much contrivance, and way too much finger pointing at us Americans and our inability to deal with the sins of our past and . . . present. Point taken, but what did your grandfather do in World War Two? And, of course, there's that whole European slave trade thing . . . .