Folklore of Heterosexual Seduction

It takes quite a bit for a film star’s name to stick in my mind.

This isn’t meant to be an assertion of snobbishness. Very few actors and actresses make a strong impression on me.

Scott Campbell’s performance in Rodger Dodger has etched him in my brain cells. The script took me back to the time when many movies were based on Broadways plays. Now there were many rotted plays. But the best play inspired scripts had dialog of exceptional quality and while some actors were certainly best choice almost any good actor could make a part work.

Rodger Dodger and Scott Campbell was an exceptionally apt wedding of words and actor.

Much of the film is Campbell’s character making generalizations about women and relationships between the sexes: the personal mythology of a man whose self-esteem is rooted in his ability to get women to sleep with. Creepy: creepily good.

There’s no denying that many heterosexual men invent their own private lore about the opposite sex and this really seemed to capture that agonizingly self-justifying project.