2002 Directed by Dylan Kidd
A smooth-talking ad executive attributes his remarkable success with women to his ability to manipulate their emotions from the moment he first meets them. When his teenage nephew drops in for a visit, he soon learns that his approach isn't as foolproof as he thought when he attempts to teach the boy how to pick up women.
Campbell Scott Jesse Eisenberg Isabella Rossellini Elizabeth Berkley Jennifer Beals Morena Baccarin Mina Badie Ato Essandoh Peter Appel Ben Shenkman Chris Stack Lisa Emery Flora Diaz Stephanie Gatschet Colin Fickes Tommy Savas Gabriel Millman Libby Larson Courtney Simon Michelle Six Juliet Morgan Marco Londoner Anne Chaisson George VanBuskirk
Roger, o Conquistador, Cosa de hombres, Любимец женщин, Hva sier man til en kvinne?, Cosas de hombres (que toda mujer quiere saber), Приказливият Роджър, Oncle Roger, Sex für Anfänger, Mathimata goiteias, Roger, a csábítás szakértője, Lawirant, Profesor de seductie, Zmuzljivi Roger, Düzenbaz Roger, Роджер Доджер, 震撼性教育, Μαθήματα Γοητείας, רודג'ר דודג'ר, Roger, O Conquistador, Roger Dodger (Roger, a csábítás szakértője), 로저 닷저
USAR
Italy
Canada
Czechia15+
Germany16
France
Canada
Czechia
France
Germany
Italy
USA
Cinematic Time Capsule
2002 Marathon - Film #54
The Tender-less Bar
”What do you do all day?”
“I sit here and think of ways to make people feel bad”
In The Tender Bar, Ben Affleck is an uncle who spends a lifetime offering the young Tye Sheridan guidance and semi-questionable advice.
Here in Roger Dodger, Campbell Scott is an uncle who spends just a single night offering the young Jesse Eisenberg a lifetime’s worth of unbelievably toxic advice.
Campbell Scott as the fast-talking know-it-all jackass is almost too good because I immediately hated him. Thankfully, Eisenberg, in his film debut, pops in and provides a much needed anchor that’s just spastic enough to be charming. The two of them hit the town for one crazy night that’s like a social seminar on everything you should never ever do, or be…
”Nick, it’s time to cut your uncle loose”
Whatever Jesse Eisenberg does to look, sound and act exactly the same now as he did nearly two decades ago, well big pharma would be interested. Absolutely remarkable how time does not affect him.
Brilliantly enjoyable film where you find yourself being entertained by an awful person trying to spoil someone's innocence via the guise of life lessons. There are super awkward scenes of what is essentially grooming but the writing is so sharp and the acting so worryingly natural that it's hard not to love it.
Another fascinating conversation piece, this talky comedy-drama takes place during one night in the New York singles scene.
Campbell Scott, best I’ve ever seen him, is a cynical advertising exec who knows everything about women, even though he doesn’t always score. On a bad day, his 16-year-old nephew Nick shows up out of the blue and asks Roger to help him figure out women. So, we listen and listen to Roger talk intriguingly about the female species, and while we don’t always agree, we’re constantly absorbed by his fluency of the English language.
Jesse Eisenberg hits the right notes as the naïve Nick, while Elizabeth Berkeley and Jennifer Beals make lasting impressions as the girls who give Nick his first glimpses of love.
It’s a wonderful script and a lovely film.
Genuinely amazed that this is a 3.3 here, but then I need to remember just how many straights are on this app lmao
Ok so. Objectively, I’d say this is more like a 2.5 because as a character study, observing Campbell Scott’s Roger as an unreliable “narrator” (there’s no narration but he’s basically narrating to Jesse Eisenberg’s Nick) in the midst of a mental health crisis is actually a kind of fulfilling movie-watching experience.
But I did a 1.5 instead because my problem here is what my problem will always be with these types of talky straight cis dude-crafted movies from this era: They always give you like 80 minutes of toxic behavior / toxic training (that’s the important part) and…
There is nothing quite like discovering a quality movie like this, with a character as despicably charismatic as Roger Swanson - the 21st century Don Draper at its core, and then looking up the director afterwards and finding out he's directed next to nothing of consequence since and 2016's 'Get a Job'.
It just breaks your heart.
It blows my mind.
In Jesse Eisenberg's major film debut, his blend of awkwardness, precociousness, and perfect comic timing are already almost fully developed. This is a memorable little story with a lot of sharp dialogue mostly delivered by Campbell Scott as his character misguidedly attempts to shepherd Eisenberg's into manhood to distract himself from his own continuing failure to grow up.
I basically stole everything about the way this was shot for my first feature that a brave 154 souls have logged on Letterboxd. That no-permit oner on the streets of Manhattan is a real showstopper. Wasn't sure how the movie as a whole would hold up twenty years later but I'm still into it. Campbell Scott is perhaps the only underrated nepo baby?
Looking at Dylan Kidd's career since though is a major bummer. A 2017 Crackle original comedy called PARTY BOAT with even fewer logs than my shit? Oof.
Yes Tubi, I did watch this for "Jesse Eisenberg's star-making debut".
Also, Roger does not have to dodge the title of "Worst Uncle Ever".
In what is a testament to a truly great screenplay and lead performance, Campbell Scott plays a character in ROGER DODGER who is repugnant in several ways and deeply, profoundly unlikeable, and yet he remains interesting and compelling throughout.
He plays Roger, a glib, cynical office worker with a gift for smooth talk and for charming women, despite the fact that he quite clearly has zero respect for anyone other than himself. He unexpectedly finds himself taking care of his 16 year-old nephew (a young Jesse Eisenberg in his big-screen debut) for the evening, so he decides to take the shy, awkward boy out on the town to lose his virginity.
While that sounds like it could be the plot…
