Behind the Scenes of Good Dick

What does Good Dick mean to you? That was the question writer-director-star Marianna Palka asked herself when she sat down to write the script of Good Dick co-starring her boyfriend of nine years and producing partner Jason Ritter. While the title might imply a low-brow, American Pie-esque sex romp, the film is actually a delicate, intimate portrait of two incredibly broken people who may just be the other’s salvation. Ritter explains it’s about love, not lust.

“These characters are blown out exaggerations of the two sides of love which are: ‘I’m here and I’m in love and I want this,’ and the other side, ‘Get the hell away from me and I’m terrified,’” Ritter says. “Sex can be so creative and beautiful and it can add so much. But it can also be so destructive. I think a lot of times people aren’t really aware of the power it has. We’re in this society where people can casually sleep with each other. I see friends who are like ‘Oh, it didn’t mean anything.’ And then they see the women later and they’re like, ‘Whoa, she’s here,’ because something was created. They try to make it seem like ‘Oh, we held hands,’ but that’s not true.”

For Ritter “Good Dick” is “attentive.” Laughing as soon as he realizes the other implications of his description he quickly explains, “not at attention but aware of the world around, not just, ‘I need to get what I want.’ Not destructive.”

Both Palka and Ritter are committed to a more enlightened view of what men and women “should” be.

“With all these magazines out there like ‘How to get a girl out of your bed,’ or, ‘How to trick her into your bed,’ or, ‘How to get her out the next day after you tricked her,’ it’s all about getting out, separating,” Ritter says. “In so many movies you’ll see this totally dick character who does whatever he wants and treats his girlfriend or wife however he wants, and she sticks around because he’s so interesting and intriguing, and no one ever questions that. But [in our movie] she’s a female and I’m sticking around. And people ask ‘Why are you doing that?’ It’s like men can be all f--ked up, and women should stick by them, but if a woman is slightly messed up, ‘Get out of there, Bro.’ You better be perfect or else.”

For Palka being a first-time writer, director and star unfolded naturally.

“I wrote it really organically," she says, “This was my first script. So I just sat there and wrote it. I didn’t know before I started that there were steps you have to go through, software you were supposed to use. [But] having written it made it easier to direct, being in it made it easier to direct. All the jobs helped one another. It was like a treasure hunt or something.”

Although Good Dick deals with the topic of erotica, none of it appears on screen. It’s the McGuffin, like the suitcase in Pulp Fiction, and it’s almost more satisfying not seeing it.

“I think it’s kind of sad what happened to sex in cinema,” Palka continues. “Video radicalized it, and that meant everyone could just make a porn. Money got involved, and it meant people could make a ton of money with no good content. It didn’t have to be sexy; it just had to be results.”

“I was going for what is really sexy,” Palka says in her lilting Scottish brogue, something she stifles in the film. “It sort of feels like 1970s movies. The sex scenes in those movies happen behind a door or through a window or in the dark. It’s like a horror film. Hitchcock is much scarier than some gory movie that’s just shock value. What you don’t see is more exciting.”

Good Dick opens in Los Angeles at the Nuart October 10th, in New York at the Sunshine October 17th and in select cities throughout the month.

Click here for more screening information.