Dancer in the Dark

The first truly modern movie musical, employing emerging filmmaking techniques instead of reaching back 50 years for inspiration, Dancer in the Dark is a daring, inventive collaboration between elfin Icelandic alt-pop diva Björk and experimental writer-director Lars von Trier (Breaking the Waves). The singer stars in this tragic fable of innocence and injustice as a near-blind immigrant factory worker in rural America, circa 1964, accused of brutally murdering a bankrupt friend (David Morse) who steals her life savings, originally designated for an operation to save her son from congenital blindness. By marrying his distinctive digital video vérité style with the unfettered showmanship of Stomp-like song and dance numbers that emerge from the imagination of its main character, the director manages to daringly retool the musical genre. Highly recommended. (R. Blackwelder)