Year of the Dog

There are clearly limits to Mike White's unique brand of sympathetic snark. Films he's written are about small, wounded people without ever settling on whether to damn or praise them. Dog marks his first time as a director. His mockery of the characters borders on vicious. Molly Shannon is solid enough as a woman who contends with the loss of a pet through an escalating commitment to other animals. In the end, I did believe in her character's path. I wish I felt that White did, too.

Köpeği ölen yalnız Peggy, yalnız kalınca yan komşu John C.Reilly ile buluşur. Daha sonra köpek bakıcısı bir gençle tanışır. Hayvan sevgisi üzerine iyi 1 film. Ama çok sıkıcı. Molly Shannon çok iyi. Ama yarıda kapatıp bırakacağımız filmlerden. Filmin sonunda aklını kaybedip 15 köpek alan Peggy, en son kendini hayır kurumlarına bırakıyor. Peşinde köpek olurum.

Entertainment: 3.5/4. Spirit: 1/3. Sustainability: 1/3.

I really liked the first half (the scenes concerning Pencil's death are incredibly moving), but I thought it went off in some kinda bizarre, preachy directions that didn't really work (and that's coming from an animal lover) and that White covered much better a few years later with Enlightened. In fact much of this movie's themes on activism seem kind of redundant to that show, including the almost identical ending. I still liked it, but plot-wise it's a bit hard to swallow.

It's the most thorough portrait yet of the world according to White.

I enjoyed this movie, the ending actually surprised me. Molly Shannon does a great job in the lead role. This movie isn't perfect but overall I would recommend it.

I don't think this film really knew what it was, it was enjoyable though and the reactions Peggy got when she went vegan were spot on, very realistic.

"Minor but moving, it's a story about, and for, outsiders...and PETA members as well." - Nick Schager

From what I remember, this was excruciating and boring. I don't believe I made it through the whole thing.

"It's a testament to writer/director Mike White's talents that Peggy's miseries are shown as humorously tragic, but also simply, plainly painful."

Molly Shannon is the only saving grace for this very uncomfortable and depressing movie. If it wasn't for her, it'd be a certain ZERO. If you like this actress, and want to spend a couple hours squirming uncomfortably, waiting for the main character to make increasingly worse choices in life, here you go.

If you love your pets, especially dogs, you probably will be favorably disposed toward this film, as I was. There is something wonderful and dog-like about Molly Shannon's performance, and that's a plus. But the film runs out of energy and creativity toward the end. The last 20 minutes or so was a dog's breakfast of farce, drama, and Sundancy ambiguities.

Tries too hard to be an indie-film, if that makes a lick of sense. And it fails, it's just a bunch of shallow feel-good moments that want to be weird, but are just stupid.

Though this annoyingly genre-defying is only 97 minutes long, it feels at least double that. Despite a hilarious performance by Laura Dern and a surprisingly moving turn by Shannon, this film did not hold together as well as I had hoped.

It's the kind of depressing you only get from bad movies, it's not about the tragic turns our lives take that make us miserable and lonely as much as it's about the stupid neuroses we have that make people think no wonder this lunatic is single. That and it flat out fails as either a romance or a comedy.

While it attempts to avoid some the trappings of the "quirky, hip, and independent" genre by keeping the characters plausibly eccentric and realistic, the film feels kind of unsure of itself; furthermore, the humor is very dry and the story is not always all that compelling. Nonetheless, it's pretty smart, the dialogue is sharp, and the performances are good. I thought it was fine but I probably won't watch it again.