Manderlay
Reception

Manderlay (2005)

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External reception

7.2
5 platform(s) · 7 ratings 28,668 votes
7.3/10 1,628 votes Synced 2026-07-29
7.2/10 26,576 votes Synced 2026-08-20
Audience 6.0/10 47 votes Synced 2026-07-19
Critics 4.6/10 Synced 2026-07-19
Audience 7.4/10 Synced 2026-07-18
Critics 5.0/10 Synced 2026-07-18
6.9/10 417 votes Synced 2026-09-17

External reviews

Roger Ebert · Chicago Sun-Times 75.00/100.00

I wouldn't go so far as to claim Manderlay is fun to watch. Von Trier, who can made compulsively watchable films ("Breaking the Waves"), has found a style that will alienate most audiences. Maybe it's necessary.

synced 2026-07-19
J.R. Jones · Chicago Reader 70.00/100.00

Lars von Trier is back, so to speak--he's never visited the States, which makes his snide anti-American allegories even more infuriating to some….But the story holds up well enough to deliver a pointed critique of establishing self-rule at gunpoint.

synced 2026-07-19
David Parkinson · Empire 80.00/100.00

Unstintingly raw and cynical, this disconcerting and deeply affecting State Of The Union treatise regularly comes dangerously close to caricature.

synced 2026-07-19
Michael Wilmington · Chicago Tribune 75.00/100.00

The acting has the bravura stage eloquence of Broadway Shakespeare and the movie is narrated, beautifully, by John Hurt.

synced 2026-07-19
Stephen Holden · The New York Times 70.00/100.00

To warm to Manderlay, the chilly second installment of Lars von Trier's not-yet-finished three-part Brechtian allegory examining United States history, you must be willing to tolerate the derision and moral arrogance of a snide European intellectual thumbing his nose at American barbarism.

synced 2026-07-19
Scott Tobias · The A.V. Club 67.00/100.00

It's an extremely cynical perspective, enforced by some disappointingly turgid melodrama, but keep in mind, this movie was made before an almost uniformly poor and black population was left to rot in New Orleans floodwaters. Even at his worst, von Trier can still strike a nerve.

synced 2026-07-19
Glenn Kenny · Premiere 75.00/100.00

Anybody can make a movie that's anti-slavery. But to make a movie that's explicitly anti-democracy-that's something.

synced 2026-07-19
Lawrence Toppman · Charlotte Observer 75.00/100.00

One of the best things about real Americans is that we can stand criticism. Informed or idiotic, scholarly or superficial, it's all welcome.

synced 2026-07-19
Andrew O'Hehir · Salon 70.00/100.00

To state the obvious, Manderlay is often patently offensive in its racial politics, and it surely isn't for everyone. It is, however, very funny, very dark and very skillfully played.

synced 2026-07-19
Hazel-Dawn Dumpert · L.A. Weekly 50.00/100.00

The dialogue is blunter, and harder for his amateur cast to pull off, while Lewis' stridency, however justified, ultimately jars against the film's tender, all-is-love fantasia.

synced 2026-07-19

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