[Good Dick, 2008]

Directed by: Marianna Palka,

Marianna Palka must be the queen of indifference when in character. [Good Dick] opens with Palka visit to a video store, choosing 4 films and heading to the front counter to purchase them. Jason Ritter plays the solicitor who imposes on her purchasing, giving her a brash and frank review of one of the films (a porn) she has chosen. Palka seems inanimate, uninterested and mute, giving away no expression, even as Ritter removes her chosen porn and bags the other 3 she has chosen. As swift as she has come, Palka is gone, haven completed her clandestine mission.

Ritter, starstruck from her inanimate suspension, writes down her address and takes it upon chance to track her down, appearing more as a voyeur than an admirer as he peers into her window to catch a glimpse of her masturbating to a film. He spends the night parked across the street, sleeping in his car (where later on it is clear that it doubles as home and transportation), penetrating the building's security by again using a position of authority and deception to enter the building. Palka walks out of her room, passing Ritter in the aisle, unaware of who he is, still with the same inanimate expression upon her face. When she returns in the elevator, she recalls Ritter, attempts to flee until he runs, catches the elevator and asks her out for coffee. Palka flees from the elevator back to her room; Ritter, defeated and deflated, takes the elevator back down. But Ritter's persistence is far from over.

He returns to her place, carrying a film as a gift, citing that he has a friend that lives in her building, diluting his stalking habits, offering her both the film, coffee or a trip to the Museum of Technology. Palka appears to be an introvert and a shut in- although he is not invited in, Palka takes his gift, promises to return them the next day- Ritter walks away with a smile and one last glance through her window as he walks away. From this logic, it is a bit presumptuous to assume Palka connects with the outside world through film, whatever its content may be. Ritter snags the code to the building as he leaves and returns to his car/home.

The next day he returns and makes an attempt to get into her home but he is met with a stronger resistance, telling Ritter it is a waste of time to keep asking her out. Palka comes to the video store, drops off the films and quickly exits before Ritter can get a greet in, but again, his persistence isn't over. There is clearly something about Palka that is irresistible to him and being denied seems to be an aphrodisiac for him to continues his endeavors. His next plight is a drastic one; he tells Palka that his great aunt, who he is house-sitting for has died and that he doesn't have anyone. She lets him in but only a knife-point, warning him if he tries anything that he will be impaled. Opening up windows while Palka still has him at knife-point, she beckons him to talk. He does so by cleaning the trash from her table and giving her a quote that his great aunt once told him. Palka, clearly no fool, tells him that it was an Emerson quote. A rant about Catholicism ensues as Ritter tells her that its okay to watch erotica (where no one gets actually penetrated) and that he is a catholic. Her believe of Catholics being perves is retorted and he tells her that he is no pervert to which she replies, "well you're not a priest." This bizarre interaction warms Palka up to Ritter. They are then together sitting against a wall trying to find the word for the "suprasternal notch," and she allows him at the end of the night to sleep on her couch.

Ritter is consumed with Palka; he arrives the next day at work late, missing a phone date with his Polish mother who goes into an emotional outburst. When Palka awakes, she finds a string of yarn tied to her ankle, leading to a "thank you" present Ritter has left for her. His gift giving Palka mixed, or rather, confusing emotions, Ritter receives no answer as he returns with another gift for her, as she hides behind the wall, scrolling through pictures of her as a child.

A strange ritual; Palka cleans her entire apartment, washes her hands, places them in two sandwich bags, pops in what seems to be another film of erotica and sits down while sliding her hands inside of her pants.

After another day of work, Ritter, who has clearly noticed her dislike of Catholicism, removes the cross from around his neck and places inside of a jar; if it offends her, if she isn't warmed to Catholics, he has made the decision he would not be one. Upon visiting her, Palka notices that his cross is gone; It is another gift to her but he tells her he must wash her hair before she can place it around her neck. It is a very perculiar way of bonding between them yet again that ensues as he washes her hair, places the cross around her hair but doesn't allow her hair to be brushed due to the disliking of it. An offer to watch one of her erotica movies gets Palka upset and he leaves, stating during his departure, that he "cares for her."

Ritter has returned and Palka has agreed to watch erotica with him, only under the conditions that he doesn't talk to her and that if he gets erect, she'll kick him out. She has begin calling the store to make requests and their erotica has become commonplace. Another one of their bizarre interactions occur while watching an erotic film when Palka begins to emascuclate him about his penis size. From this, a challenge has been placed: If Ritter penis is bigger than the actor on the television, he gets to sleep in her bed (without touching.) If he isn't bigger, he has to come over, watch films and prepare food, without speaking a word. Ritter wins the bet and the next scene, Palka is warning him that if he tries to rape her that she will call the cops. Be that as it may, Ritter is allowed to put his back up against hers in an effort to get warm. In the morning, he masturbates as she showers, attempts to kiss her as she returns and is met with a stiff  hand.

The most bizarre display comes as she bends Ritter over the table and mocks rape him, moaning "I'm gonna cum," then asks him what do you think. "I think you are funny, now can I do it to you?"

Nevertheless Palka and Ritter becomes closer in an askew way; Ritter is lonely without family, only friends and Palka is hurt in some way that Ritter perhaps knows or doesn't. This is apparent when they clash upon Palka's failure to show to meet Ritter's friend. Her tongue become sharp, brash, displaced; she doesn't want her life, which Ritter believes is no life at all, disrupted in any way. This collision continues as Ritter attempts to pull Palka from her safety zone and Palka attempts to dig in deeper by running him away. But to endure her malevolent crusade is the key Ritter becomes aware of and he is not easily removed, yet endures it with confidence. Physical contact is his prize but it comes with a bigger price; his exile from her life.

But the exile of Ritter brings Palka to a greater realization; that she not only needs to live but live on her own two feet, within the world. To better attest this notion, she confronts the biggest nemisis in her life, the man who made her inwardly immobile; her father. A critical man portrayed by the great Tom Arnold, Palka, under the threat of his financial and networking might, frees herself, finds Ritter and is able to see him as she never had before; as a whole that has come into her life and made the greatest difference, caused the first forward transition she has ever made.



If Palka has done anything with [Good Dick], she has created a world conjured from two that should have been one all along, devised a portrayal of a woman still a prisoner to the trauma suffered in her childhood that she has distorted into all things phallic. The entire purpose of life is that there is no purpose other to be and become; Palka's becoming was elicited by the "disruption"of a lonely man, desperately intuitive, desirably persistence and casually understanding. [Good Dick] has easily ushered itself into one of my most forward films ever reviewed.