Ranking Every Lars Von Trier Film Worst To Best

One of the first films ever shot entirely on digital cameras, The Idiots is one of von Trier's most polarising projects, a risky social satire that sees a woman (Bodi Jorgensen) suffer a miscarriage and join a group of performance artists as they challenge social norms by acting developmentally disabled in public. Von Trier purists see The Idiots as one of his best works; detractors see it as one of his worst.

Watching it over, it's hard to think of the film as either good or bad. On the one hand, von Trier made it in hopes of seeing people look at the ways in which they present themselves in public, and with some sharp jokes it often succeeds at making people think. However, with its sexual scenes adding little to the plot and the blunt observations of social constructs, it can seem a little on the nose, unable to shock without doing something controversial.

It's funny and wildly unique (as with all von Trier projects), but The Idiots, for all its strengths, will always feel a touch too extreme for the message its trying to convey.