019 - Good Dick

Director: Marianna Palka
Year: 2008

It is unfortunate independent films such as this do not receive more publicity. I had never heard of the film until it was suggested to me as a film I needed to see.

FYI - I honestly do not remember names being thrown around for the main characters so I decided to look up the film online to see if I could find names to use in this post. It seems that every site just calls the characters "Woman" and "Man" so from here on out I will refer to the actor's name when describing a character: Marianna and Jason.

Marianna (Woman) is a troubled young woman who keeps herself isolated and lives a very unsocial reclusive life. Jason (Man) is a random guy who works at a video store with his buddies. Jason encounters Marianna when she enters the video store to rent several adult films and immediately falls for her. Jason is persistent in his attempts to befriend Marianna and draw her out of her isolated world. Jason moves into Marianna's apartment and the two become closer as the film goes on but Marianna's defenses put up quite a fight.

When you stop and look at the film at the surface there certainly is not a lot there. It's about a man who falls in love with a woman who doesn't love him back. Only after thinking about the film for a bit did I realize how much more there was to the story. Good Dick, to me, is an original love story that depicts the powers love can have on a person. In most films today, love and especially sex are depicted as something that simply occurs but in this film it is love that breaks down Marianna's barriers put in place because of her sexually abused childhood. Jason's love for Marianna slowly chips away at her reclusive lifestyle. In the beginning of the film their relationship, if you can call it that, always ends with Marianna yelling at Jason to stop bothering her and to go away, but throughout the film we see Marianna become more trusting of Jason and ultimately go back to him after confronting her father. It is amazing to watch Marianna's transformation throughout the film.

Marianna Palka's GOOD DICK (2008)