It is not entirely clear to me exactly who is being mocked in this film. Superficially, they are mocking the mentally disordered, but doing so in order to, more largely, mock what? Capitalism? Society? I can't be sure. I will say that it did hold my interest, and was original. There was some powerful character exposition at the end. Reminded me a little bit of "The Brown Bunny".The version I saw here in the U. S. was censored. They placed solid black patches on the film to cover certain nudity situations. (We are such delicate children here in America!) But if censorship is deemed necessary, (I don't think that it ever is) it was at least done right. Although some of the images were hidden from me, the usual ham-handed way to censor something here is simply to cut out whole scenes. At least I could follow the film's logic, even if not all of the imagery.I have to say that I enjoyed the film, even if I did not fully understand it.

Movie such as this is one of the reasons I can't stand any of the depressing melodrama for the sake of depressing melodrama that's over-saturating every medium on the planet these days. Enough of these bad things happen in real life, we don't need everything we watch nor read or listen to; to get away from normal life to be completely centered around the exact thing we're trying to take our minds off of. Director by King Dogma Attitude Lars Von Trier, 'the Idiots' is his try to make a film in compliance with the Dogme '95 Manifesto film making movement which he started. He fails to live up to it. What is the Dogme'95 Manifesto? Dogme '95 also known as Dogme#2 were rules to create filmmaking based on the traditional values of story, acting, theme, and excluding the use of elaborate special effects or technology following close to a Vow of Chastity rule. Like a whore in a nun's church, Lars broke the rules in this movie by bringing a prop onto the set and used special lighting. Von Trier also used background music (Le Cygne by Camille Saint-Saëns) in the film. The whole Dogme '95 movement collapse with this movie. Due to trying to live up to the Vows, the movie suffers from errors on screen such as boom mics or cameraman getting into the shots. The idiots also marks the second film in von Trier's Golden Heart Trilogy, which includes Breaking the Waves (1996) and Dancer in the Dark (2000) which had a woman put into wickedness actions. The woman in this one is Karen (Bodil Jørgensen) who is taken some interest in an anti-bourgeois group, leaded by Stoffer (Jens Albinus), whom spend their time acting like mentally disabled people in public to challenge the establishment through provocation. The idiots start to see that with they can get away with a lot with playing dumb, and see a romantic ideal of being disability gives until reality hit them hard. The movie is spoken in Danish, but I can't understand the message they are trying to say with this film. I can't decide if that dogma filmmaking method is admirable or intentionally hamstringing itself arbitrarily. The characters are unlikeable. The mocking of Down syndrome is rude. Then there is the pointless gangbang scene. That part of the film was pure hardcore porn. I know Lars Von Trier lived in nudist commune environment and yes, I know Danish has more lax attitude towards nudity and sex than the US apparently has by comparison, but honestly what was the point of that scene? It felt out of place. I felt that the Gruppeknald scene was just there to feed Lars Von Tier's pervert ego. Trine Michelsen is only in the movie for this scene since she is a porn star. Not a big porn star, but more importantly she is the daughter of the most influential Danish movie critic at the time Ole Michelsen. Ole Michelsen is famous for saying he reviews all types of movies except the type his daughter stars in. Lars von Trier makes a cameo in his movie in exactly just for this scene, by having Ole Michelsen was forced to review a movie that has the director sleeping with his daughter. That's pretty crude. For me, the idea that if someone is broken. I should be able to sympathize with their horrible behavior that demeans a group human beings that are already in an oppressed position to begin with is just no. That ending did nothing for me. I didn't feel sorry for any of them at all. This is not an art for art sakes, or whatever they made up to sound sophisticated movie, it's Z Grade exploitation either desperately trying or pretending to have a meaning. Mange tak, Lars. You made a pretty horrible movie.

This movie challenged and moved me in so many ways that I know it will take several viewings to fully appreciate it.Many other reviewers have commented on the acting, and as with Festen and Breaking the Waves, the performances are excellent. I would genuinely like to know how people are able to do this.But best of all for me are the themes explored by the movie. I found 'Dancer in the Dark' too dark for my tastes, and 'Antichrist' really turned me off completely. I then watched 'Five Obstructions' and found it amazing (though its a collaboration, of course). With 'The Idiots' I think LVT hits the balance very well. There is enough here to make me laugh, wince, gasp (in disbelief), frown, and develop several lumps in my throat. You can't ask for more than that in a movie.

Lars Von Trier is the king of controversy. He deliberately adds scenes that aren't needed at all just to create shock from the public, he did it in "Antichrist" by placing a pornographic 3 second shock of graphic sex. Here he's decided to do it again by adding idiotic images like a fully erect penis and a pornographic sex scene. They may not be very long shots but they are simply disgusting and not needed. This film has confirmed to me that Lars Von Trier, how ever good a film-maker he is, is a pervert! He's recently even stated that whilst working on his latest film "Melencholia" he'd love to see Kirsten Dunst in a 10 minute porn movie! That's before saying that he's a fan of Nazis (as a joke, yeah real funny Lars!).But here we're getting off the point of the film. What was the point anyway? I must've completely missed the brilliance of "The Idiots" because to me it seemed like an even more pointless "Jackass", watching pathetic idiots acting like mentally ill people by "spazzing" in public to find their inner idiot. There is little and almost no plot at all. It's a character piece, focusing on really unlikable people who have little interesting about them.The shaky camera seems entirely unnecessary with the boom mic and camera reflection clearly visible in some shots. The directing simply has no directing. Some intellectuals might consider it "sponataneous" and "different" but it's pointless and off-putting. The screenplay is also a complete mess. Maybe something got lost in translation but I couldn't particularly understand what was going on and what the point was of there actions.I also would not recommend watching this with other people because watching it by yourself is awkward enough. The final scene is really intense and not the good intense like "Black Swan" but really awkward and uncomfortable intense. It's horrible to watch and quite upsetting and I don't know why anyone would want their audience to feel that way. The reason for the extra mark was just for the power of the last scene and how the whole experience of seeing the film will take a while for me to forget.Intellectuals will only like "The Idiots", they will see things I can't see because to me it's a confusing, boring and senseless piece of film making with some disgusting imagery and perverted writing. Stay clear of "The Idiots" like you'd stay clear of an idiot.