Wiener-Dog Review

<p><a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;imdb&period;com&sol;name&sol;nm0001754&quest;ref&lowbar;&equals;tt&lowbar;ov&lowbar;dr">Todd Solondz<&sol;a> is one hell of a filmmaker&period; Within his films&comma; Solondz looks into the ugliness of the urban middle-class with deceptive simplicity&period; His characters are far and wide&comma; with some of the most perverse and disgusting people to ever grace any screen&period; Not unlike David Lynch&comma; Solondz wants to uncover the seedy underbelly of a suburban life&period; These lives are probably best exemplified in his 1998 masterpiece&comma; <em>Happiness<&sol;em>&period; Featuring a who&&num;8217&semi;s who of character actors&comma; <em>Happiness<&sol;em> uses their established personalities in other films to subvert your expectations of them&period; In his latest film&comma; <em>Wiener-Dog<&sol;em>&comma; the director uses everything in his power to craft a unique story only he could tell&period; And the only thing tying everything together is a little dog&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Wiener-Dog<&sol;em> uses the titular canine as a loose tool between these four stories that feature a variety of typical Solondz characters&period; The first story focuses on the family that adopts the dog&period; The marvelous <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;imdb&period;com&sol;name&sol;nm0000365&sol;&quest;ref&lowbar;&equals;tt&lowbar;cl&lowbar;t3">Julie Delpy<&sol;a> is the matriarch of the small family&period; They are rounded out by her husband&comma; played by actor&sol;playwright <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;imdb&period;com&sol;name&sol;nm0504832&sol;&quest;ref&lowbar;&equals;tt&lowbar;cl&lowbar;t2">Tracy Letts<&sol;a>&comma; and newcomer <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;imdb&period;com&sol;name&sol;nm7436998&sol;&quest;ref&lowbar;&equals;tt&lowbar;cl&lowbar;t1">Keaton Nigel Cooke<&sol;a> as their son&period; Probably the best story of the four&comma; Delpy truly steals the show as a cruel&comma; but well-meaning mother teaching her son about the responsibilities of having a dog&period; Among these lessons is a horrific fable involving the rape of a dog and it&&num;8217&semi;s played for all the uncomfortable humor they could get out of it&period; Now we&&num;8217&semi;re getting into what a Solondz movie is like&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;110053" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-110053" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-110053 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;07&sol;03123434&sol;Weiner-Dog-1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;Wiener-Dog&comma; Annapurna Pictures&rpar;" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1279" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-110053" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Wiener-Dog<&sol;em>&comma; Annapurna Pictures&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Solondz likes to revisit the past&period; His 2009 film&comma; <em>Life During Wartime<&sol;em>&comma; continued to look at the lives of his characters from <em>Happiness<&sol;em> 10 years later&period; He does this again with his second story starring <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;imdb&period;com&sol;name&sol;nm1950086&sol;&quest;ref&lowbar;&equals;tt&lowbar;cl&lowbar;t4">Greta Gerwig<&sol;a> as Dawn Wiener&comma; the lead character from his breakout film&comma; <em>Welcome to the Dollhouse<&sol;em>&period; Played by a different actress this time round&comma; Wiener is the same kind of pathetic character from the first film&comma; but seems to have lost a lot of the selfishness previously seen&period; This is a matured character&comma; to a point&period; She runs into former crush &lpar;and former attempted rapist of Dawn&rpar;&comma; Brandon&comma; played by <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;imdb&period;com&sol;name&sol;nm0001085&sol;&quest;ref&lowbar;&equals;tt&lowbar;cl&lowbar;t5">Kieran Culkin<&sol;a>&period; They decide to go on a road trip in search of something that Brandon keeps close to the chest&period; This story is surprisingly sweet and tender despite the nature of the duo&&num;8217&semi;s relationship&period; And the direction the story goes never feels forced&period; Probably the happiest portion of any Solondz film that I&&num;8217&semi;ve ever seen&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Wiener-Dog<&sol;em> doesn&&num;8217&semi;t take long to get back to the cruelty the director is known for&period; <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;imdb&period;com&sol;name&sol;nm0000362&sol;&quest;ref&lowbar;&equals;tt&lowbar;cl&lowbar;t13">Danny DeVito<&sol;a> plays Solondz&&num;8217&semi;s surrogate&comma; Dave Schmerz&period; A college teacher known for being incredibly grumpy&comma; Schmerz isn&&num;8217&semi;t satisfied with where he is in life&period; And that&&num;8217&semi;s about the purpose of the story&period; The weakest of the four&comma; this tale fails to say anything interesting within the context of the rest of the film&period; It comes across as an old man complaining about trying to get movies made&period; While there are still great moments&comma; it can&&num;8217&semi;t help but feel rather pointless in the context of everything&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;110054" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-110054" style&equals;"width&colon; 1962px" class&equals;"wp-caption alignnone"><img class&equals;"wp-image-110054 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;07&sol;03123416&sol;Weiner-Dog-2&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;Wiener-Dog&comma; Annapurna Pictures&rpar;" width&equals;"1962" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-110054" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Wiener-Dog<&sol;em>&comma; Annapurna Pictures&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>We end on the note of death&period; <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;imdb&period;com&sol;name&sol;nm0000995&sol;&quest;ref&lowbar;&equals;ttfc&lowbar;fc&lowbar;cl&lowbar;t30">Ellen Burstyn<&sol;a> plays Nana to <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;imdb&period;com&sol;name&sol;nm0541082&sol;&quest;ref&lowbar;&equals;ttfc&lowbar;fc&lowbar;cl&lowbar;t32">Zosia Mamet<&sol;a>&&num;8216&semi;s Zoe&period; Focused on a rare get-together between the two&comma; Zoe brings her new boyfriend&comma; Fantasy&comma; into the fray&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s obvious from the outset that none of the people particularly want to be around each other&comma; but there are ulterior motives&period; Burstyn kills it as the slowly suffering senior&period; Nailing the sadness of solitude&comma; Burstyn puts on a no bullshit attitude when she needs to and can pull out the vulnerability at the exact right moments&period; Within the span of 20 minutes&comma; a full character is formed&period; This final story is where the tragedy truly comes into play and transforms the movie into something else&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>While often humorous&comma; <em>Wiener-Dog<&sol;em> is just as emotional as the best of them&period; Solondz is able to write these vulnerable characters stuck in a situation they&&num;8217&semi;re not sure how to free themselves of&period; These characters are no different&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m not sure if this is my favorite Solondz film&comma; but it&&num;8217&semi;s certainly in the running&period; Life is fleeting and full of moments to regret&period; These characters are shining examples of that&period; Do we move past these moments and live&quest; Or do we spend the rest of our lives regretting them&quest; Solondz doesn&&num;8217&semi;t plan on telling you&period; That&&num;8217&semi;s for you to decide&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;