Todd Solondz first caught my attention with "Welcome to the Dollhouse," a dark and disturbing comedy. Then he gave us "Happiness," in my opinion, as good a black comedy as I have ever seen. He's had a few other good ones, since, and now he has given us "Wiener Dog," another black comedy that while not his best, it's not far from it.
"Wiener-Dog" follows the life of a dachshund as it repeatedly switches owners. In that way, it reminded me of Robert Bresson's French film classic, "Au hazard Balthazar," whose central character was a donkey that moved from owner to owner. While the French film mostly looked at the abuses to the donkey, Solondz casts the dachshund as an innocent bystander that watches stupid humans doing stupid things.
The first master of the dachshund is Remi (Keaton Nigel Cooke), a 9-year-old boy who recently survived a battle with cancer. He has named the dachshund, Wiener-Dog and he loves his pet. His parents (Tracy Letts and Julie Delpy) are not interested in Wiener-Dog and both of them come across as total phonies that you would try and avoid at a party. The behavior of the parents is stiff, much like how the characters in "Happiness" interacted.
Movie title | Wiener-Dog |
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Release year | 2016 |
MPAA Rating | R |
Our rating | |
Summary | Todd Solondz's latest film takes another peek inside the twisted mind of the average person. |