Messofanego
Banned
What if? Then what?
Wiener-Dog [trailer]
Absolutely hilarious, morbid, and poignant mortality tale. Much like his previous films like Palindromes and Storytelling, there is connective tissue between the vignettes which this time is a wiener-dog. If Todd Solondz wanted to achieve the most depressing and darkly comedic dog film ever, he succeeded. The cast across the board are fantastic, with some of them giving standout performances like Danny DeVito as a down-on-his luck screenwriter and teacher at a film school, Zosia Mamet as an immeasurably cheery struggling actress ("I play a crack whore but it's very emotional") who drops the feigned happiness right at the end of her segment, Greta Gerwig as an awkward girl who has a crush on Kieran Culkin's junkie badboy character as they go on a roadtrip (and their relationship seems to be an alternate future of Welcome To The Dollhouse), and Ellen Burstyn as an old lady who ponders over how her life could have been in the funniest scene I've seen all year (
garnered the biggest laugh).
I also kind of love that a rapist dog has the same name as my first, in a slightly racist-tinged story that Julie Delpy's character tells her son about the consequences of what happens if a dog isn't spayed. Their conversations reminded me a lot of the awkward conversations between the son and dad in Happiness.
It's the first time I've noticed the cinematography (Edward Lachman) in a Solondz film and here it's gorgeous. There are some tracking and long shots that really hammer the poignancy and strange beauty in death and excrement (Solondz mentioned the latter's shot being a reference to Godard's Weekend).
I don't think it's too early to say it's in my top 3 of Todd Solondz films. It's mostly down to how cohesive and clever the film is thematically with being about mortality, how razor sharp the writing and editing is, how many memorably funny scenes there are, and how well it sticks to his practice of revisiting characters, themes, structures throughout his "cinematic universe" as a means of being about alternate possibilities or futures which is perfectly encapsulised by the final vignette with Ellen Burstyn's "and that's you if...".
Todd Solondz ranking:
Happiness
Welcome To The Dollhouse
Wiener-Dog
Storytelling
Fear, Anxiety & Depression
Dark Horse
Palindromes
Life During Wartime
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The director was there (with lovely blue glasses) for a Q&A. He's as hilarious in person as his films are He mentioned how the way that wiener-dogs have been bred, they're the dumbest dogs and it was difficult to film them but he was glad when it was over. I asked him the question about revisiting characters that was quite eye-opening as to why he revisits characters/structures in his cinematic universe, and as to how he gets the well known actors that show up for his weird movies (it's pretty simple actually, they just say yes when he asks them so I guess he has a lot of fans). One of other audience questions reminded me how the theme of mortality circles back around (
). The funniest answer he gave was to a question about advice to aspiring writers: "Do whatever weird thing you're passionate about, like if you're a Julia Roberts fan when everyone else is Wong Kar Wai".
More people should watch Todd Solondz and Roy Andersson films, they're the kings of dark comedy.
Wiener-Dog [trailer]
Absolutely hilarious, morbid, and poignant mortality tale. Much like his previous films like Palindromes and Storytelling, there is connective tissue between the vignettes which this time is a wiener-dog. If Todd Solondz wanted to achieve the most depressing and darkly comedic dog film ever, he succeeded. The cast across the board are fantastic, with some of them giving standout performances like Danny DeVito as a down-on-his luck screenwriter and teacher at a film school, Zosia Mamet as an immeasurably cheery struggling actress ("I play a crack whore but it's very emotional") who drops the feigned happiness right at the end of her segment, Greta Gerwig as an awkward girl who has a crush on Kieran Culkin's junkie badboy character as they go on a roadtrip (and their relationship seems to be an alternate future of Welcome To The Dollhouse), and Ellen Burstyn as an old lady who ponders over how her life could have been in the funniest scene I've seen all year (
"And that's you if you left a bigger tip"
I also kind of love that a rapist dog has the same name as my first, in a slightly racist-tinged story that Julie Delpy's character tells her son about the consequences of what happens if a dog isn't spayed. Their conversations reminded me a lot of the awkward conversations between the son and dad in Happiness.
It's the first time I've noticed the cinematography (Edward Lachman) in a Solondz film and here it's gorgeous. There are some tracking and long shots that really hammer the poignancy and strange beauty in death and excrement (Solondz mentioned the latter's shot being a reference to Godard's Weekend).
I don't think it's too early to say it's in my top 3 of Todd Solondz films. It's mostly down to how cohesive and clever the film is thematically with being about mortality, how razor sharp the writing and editing is, how many memorably funny scenes there are, and how well it sticks to his practice of revisiting characters, themes, structures throughout his "cinematic universe" as a means of being about alternate possibilities or futures which is perfectly encapsulised by the final vignette with Ellen Burstyn's "and that's you if...".
Todd Solondz ranking:
Happiness
Welcome To The Dollhouse
Wiener-Dog
Storytelling
Fear, Anxiety & Depression
Dark Horse
Palindromes
Life During Wartime
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The director was there (with lovely blue glasses) for a Q&A. He's as hilarious in person as his films are He mentioned how the way that wiener-dogs have been bred, they're the dumbest dogs and it was difficult to film them but he was glad when it was over. I asked him the question about revisiting characters that was quite eye-opening as to why he revisits characters/structures in his cinematic universe, and as to how he gets the well known actors that show up for his weird movies (it's pretty simple actually, they just say yes when he asks them so I guess he has a lot of fans). One of other audience questions reminded me how the theme of mortality circles back around (
the little boy in the first segments has cancer, the dog in the last vignette is called Cancer
More people should watch Todd Solondz and Roy Andersson films, they're the kings of dark comedy.