The Idiots

Director: Lars von Trier
Year Released: 1998
Rating: 3.0

Danish performance artists, led by Stoffer (Jens Albinus), go around town "pretending" they're mentally disabled (which allows them to dine and dash or outright steal from stores) and trying to discover their inner "idiot" - they find lonely Karen (Bodil Jørgensen) eating alone and bring her into the mix (where she acts as the voice of reason for both the troupe and the audience).  It might be a little too easy to crucify Von Trier for this - it was subject to controversy even when it was released - but it's not simply a cheap provocation: he's making a comment on the way society does actually treat individuals born with genetic defects and regards them as pariahs (which I've seen firsthand in working with Special Education kids).  He then takes it one step further: when Stoffer has a breakdown and needs to be restrained - and Josephine (Louise Mieritz) is taken away by her father - you have to wonder whether or not members of the outfit are (a.) already psychologically troubled or (b.) if they're experiencing a kind of "artistic madness" (which Lars would later explore with The House That Jack Built).  Full credit goes to the brave souls who agreed to work with the mercurial director, especially with the whole "gang bang" sequence (which might have broken some Dogme 95 "rules" ... or at least "adjusted" them a little).