Review of Year of the Dog (2007) by Faith B — 20 Nov 2007

The book Nothing Feels Good, writer Andy Greenwald explains the genre of emo: "A key part of emo's perpetual appeal is the simple fact that it takes relatively mundane problems quite seriously- and its presentation of the shy narrator as somehow heroic in his defeat was heartening to an audience full of young men who possessed countless unrequited and unexpressed crushes of their own...there was a defiant pride in emo's loser-ish tendencies- an arrogance derived from superior humility." This is worth noting in this review because Mike White is almost unquestionably the king of emo filmmaking, whether he would approve of the title or not and Year of the Dog just about perfectly reflects that.

The movie sets up a solid case for Peggy (Molly Shannon) being a pathetic loser and yet ultimately presents her as the hero of the film. Whether or not Peggy is a loser or a hero may in fact be the main factor which decides whether someone in the audience enjoys the film or not. Some will find her problems trivial and her social inabilities frustrating rather than endearing. But, for its target audience- those who will relate to Peggy- this is a near-perfect film.

There are two main detractors from the film. First off, Molly Shannon's performance is a bit lacking. She simply may not have the dept for this role and it might have been an even better film with a different lead. Her lack of depth is particularly noticeable when she's playing against brilliant actors like Peter Sarsgaard, John C. Reilly and Regina King. Second, this is Mike White's first movie and he doesn't have much directing style to speak of yet. When the audience is given nothing but a frame to watch and a score to listen to, White doesn't really seem to know what to do with it. But as soon as the characters take over, White's brilliant dialogue makes the audience forget about the fact that the movie isn't very visually interesting. White is one of the best writers when it comes to getting glimpses of people and culture. When Peggy mentions in front of her niece that her dog has died, her sister-in-law looks horrified and says, "Wow. That's a lot to process. D-E-A-T-H." Scenes like this are brilliant.