Review of Dogtooth (2009) by Dave C — 11 Mar 2011

Dogtooth as a concept is intriguing and engaging. As a film, it is none of these things. It's about as annoyingly pretentious as arthouse films get, and though I thought the bland execution was conducive to the story it was trying to tell, I found myself unbelievably bored and disengaged nearly the whole time, and there's no bigger failure than that in the film world if you ask me.

There is no story. Literally none. No story, no characters showcasing any depth, not really a whole lot of anything other than a bunch of bizarre and disturbing scenes involving a messed up family unit assembled side by side in a non-linear editor and vomited out to the world to be embraced by the art film crowd. I've always found myself distancing away from these types of films and I think watching Dogtooth helped me put my finger on why - I simply don't have the patience for these kinds of sterile, lifeless commentaries. And don't get me wrong, its comment on the family unit and the absurd ideal of a perfect family is not lost on me. I think it's pretty clever to be honest, but like any art film that exists solely to comment on something, I just don't give a shit about it when it's such a chore to sit through the way this was.

I really wanted to love this because the concept was super interesting to me, but oh well, can't win 'em all.