Shot on a soundstage with chalk mark subbing for actual walls, Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier’s Brechtian lament to a country he’s never visited is a formally audacious journey through the heart of small-town America via its chief protagonist Grace Mulligan (Nicole Kidman) who, in hiding from her criminal father (James Caan), is taken in by the residents of a Colorado town. But as a search party grows nearer and the perceived threat over the town grows larger, the ennui grows and the citizens of Dogville begin to show their teeth.

In challenging America’s vision of itself as a haven for asylum seekers and fostering of community, von Trier — ever cinema’s sneering court jester — utilizes a stacked cast to torch such notions. An exasperating tome or a standing masterpiece of the Aughts, DOGVILLE is ready for its reevaluation.

Co-starring Paul Bettany, Lauren Bacall, Patricia Clarkson, Philip Baker Hall, Ben Gazzara, John Hurt and Stellan Skarsgård, Dogville might be the most audacious film in von Trier’s notorious decades-long career as a maverick provocateur.