Wiener-Dog (2016)

[Blue Jam]

Todd Solondz's new one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBNKaQQYMWE

As some of you may have noticed, I like sausage dogs, and for that reason I'm not sure I'd like this film- I get the impression than heartwarming and uplifting it could be rather bleak and depressing and incredibly upsetting. I'm also not sure if it's trying to be annoyingly hipsterish, or if it's taking the piss out of annoying hipster types- judging by the trailer the line is a bit too fine.

Anyone fancy watching this for me and telling me if I should give it a wide berth? Ta.

[hewantstolurkatad]

Todd Solondz's new one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBNKaQQYMWE

As some of you may have noticed, I like sausage dogs, and for that reason I'm not sure I'd like this film- I get the impression than heartwarming and uplifting it could be rather bleak and depressing and incredibly upsetting. I'm also not sure if it's trying to be annoyingly hipsterish, or if it's taking the piss out of annoying hipster types- judging by the trailer the line is a bit too fine.

Anyone fancy watching this for me and telling me if I should give it a wide berth? Ta.

It's by Todd Solondz, the humour is likely to be pretty damn black.

I would say he's basically always taking the piss out of everyone, but trying to be compassionate about it. Fails more often than not but his last film was surprisingly good!

[Blue Jam]

It's by Todd Solondz, the humour is likely to be pretty damn black.

Yep- reading the reviews first I was surprised to find the trailer makes the film look so much more warm and fuzzy than the reviews make it sound. To me it looks like an interesting mess- a bit like The Lobster.

Spoiler alert

The dog buys it, doesn't it?

[close]

[Noodle Lizard]

Long as there's a good few sausage jokes in there, that'll do me just fine.

Everybody loves sausages.

[Bored of Canada]

I'm looking forward to this but it's not playing at the Melbourne International Film Festival coming up, and it's definitely not upcoming to any cinemas in Australia as I've been checking, so chances of seeing this at the cinema seem like they're close to nil.

And my attention span is so fundamentally fucked by my diet of Buzzfeed Listicles that the only way I can watch a full feature is in a dark public place where I'm forced to turn off my bloody phone by society.

[Ron Maels Moustache]

Knowing Solondz, I'm sure the tone of that trailer was intentionally designed to prank audiences into expecting the kind of quirky hipster comedy that he doesn't do. And judging by some of the comments on there it looks like it worked.

Curt Dewbre4 days ago
People walked out before the closing credits. I don't understand the need for the gore at the end.

Bexalexa141 week ago
Seriously please no one go see this. Especially if you are a wiener dog owner and lover. It's truly terrible & so depressing. Watching this commercial after knowing what the actually movie is like just makes me sad because the trailer is so much better than the actual movie. Seriously. Do NOT watch if you actually like wiener dogs... I won't spoiler but the ending is so awful you can't even imagine. Like whatever bad ending you could imagine... The real ending is so much worse than that.. So if you like quirky weird movies and have no real care about dogs then maybe go see it. But if you are a fellow animal lover and are hoping for a sweet movie about your favorite hot dog shaped friend... DO NOT GO SEE THIS MOVIE! Okay my rant is over. Have a nice day :)

Yep, that sounds like our Todd.

[Noodle Lizard]

That second comment is hilarious.  Imagine someone going to a movie, evidently knowing nothing about the plot or filmmaker, just because they're a fan of sausage dogs.  And then being so horribly disappointed.

Whether or not the film's good, that comment has justified its existence.

[zomgmouse]

Definitely looking forward to this. Welcome to the Dollhouse was tragic and pitiful and yet also very funny so I am interested to see what a sequel would look like. A bit disappointed we don't get Matarazzo reprising her role but Gerwig is a good choice to pull this off.

[Shaky]

but the ending is so awful you can't even imagine. Like whatever bad ending you could imagine... The real ending is so much worse than that.

Hmmm. I can imagine some pretty terrible things happening to dogs, so this'll be a must see!

[Blue Jam]

Imagine someone going to a movie... just because they're a fan of sausage dogs.

Er... ;)

Well, I saw this today and really enjoyed it. I liked the overall thing of showing dysfunctional humans under the watchful gaze of a silent non-human observer. It didn't all work for me but there were plenty of moments to enjoy.

The first and third of the four stories were the best for me. I liked the first story with the awful parents thinking they're, like, really good'n'wholesome with their granola bars and yoga but really being awful people, and the perma-grinning mother's

Spoiler alert

racism and Islamophoboia

[close]

coming out in her bullshit story about why Wiener-Dog had to be spayed.

The third story with Danny DeVito was the highlight for me. The idea of his job being under threat because his film students had reported his "lack of positivity"- ie, him telling them that their shit ideas were shit, was painfully true, and I did wonder if Todd Solondz had been near a British university lately or if things are just as bad in the US. I did have to wonder about the

Spoiler alert

APRICOTS!

[close]

poster in his office too- was that a parody of a particular Woody Allen film, or a parody of some other film by another well-known auteur? It somehow rang true anyway.

As for the warnings of gore,

Spoiler alert

it seemed obvious what was going to happen to Wiener-Dog/Doody/Cancer the second we were told what the Nathan Barley-esque Fantasy and his plastic waistcoat did for a living, but FFS, I love sausage dogs but even I didn't think it was that bad- I even saw the funny side of it and I'm a soppy get for dogs

[close]

.

Storeis #2 and #4 didn't quite work out for me, but overall I found it strangely heartwarming, despite Solondz's best efforts.

[Noodle Lizard]

Unfortunately I wasn't nearly as impressed.  It's basically like Todd Solondz had some vague ideas floating around for a few years in his Notes app, then saw Au Hassard Balthazar and went "Ah, I'll just do it a bit like that".  The difference is, the donkey in Balthazar feels totally essential to the plot and seems to bear the burden (literally and metaphorically) of the situations he's thrown into.  The titular wiener-dog in this is barely even in it, and after the first two "stories" it doesn't even bother explaining how she ends up with the next person. 

Spoiler alert

Then it gets cunted by a bunch of trucks - shocking

[close]

.  It's hard to see that device as anything other than laziness on Solondz's part.  If you want to make an anthology film like Wild Tales, just do that - although I suspect he realises none of the stories amount to much of anything in and of themselves, so it wouldn't serve him well to present them as being self-contained.

Useless sausage dog aside, ultimately none of the stories were at all original or interesting[nb]or the ones which seemed like they could be, like Danny DeVito's, just fizzled out[/nb], nor did the writing really get the best out of some of the talent in the cast.  Some of the jabs at millennials in the last two stories in particular was just horrendous writing, and I'm all for making fun of college liberal types.  I see the Blue Jam mentioned that bit with Julie Delpy at the beginning being good, but no ... no subtlety whatsoever, just poor, poor writing.  Never saw the parents as thinking they were anything other than they were - an obviously dysfunctional family - but even if he had pulled that off, it would've been quite trite and not even novel for him, let alone the centuries of storytelling that precede him.

I get that he's overall trying to go for some kind of nihilistic "Life is meaningless, but it might be kind of fine sort of" message, but he just doesn't have the talent to convey anything remotely profound convincingly.  At least not this time (I remain a big supporter of Happiness, which I'm now convinced was lightning striking once).

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

I strongly disagree with Noodle Lizard.

This was the funniest film I've seen this year. Filled with belly laughs from various angles - visual humour, the dialogue, the editing, and often the character stuff. The dialogue in particular is sparing and lean - barely a line wasted. So much energy, variety, creativity. It bounces around, self-aware it has no need to exist but making the most of it anyway - almost like the erstwhile wiener dawg herself.

The film is cut through with a cynicism for all involved and yet a tacit acceptance of all of them - the lies we tell to make the day easier.

The only weak part if any was Danny De Vitos section, where I thought he was miscast, and the character too much of a one note loser. That said, the line from his student "Oh my god, I bet he has like a box set of Curb Your Enthusiasm...or Seinfeld" was great, bracingly cynical and tonally perfect.

It isn't really a dog movie overall. Anyone thinking it's going to be like Marley and Me is in forba major shock, though there are some very cute moments. There are also some grisly moments. The trail of diarrhoea montage is among the funniest things and unexpected things I've ever seen.

The finale is genuinely brutal and unwavering. It is in line with the matter of factness of the film though.

An 8/10 here.

[Noodle Lizard]

That said, the line from his student "Oh my god, I bet he has like a box set of Curb Your Enthusiasm...or Seinfeld" was great, bracingly cynical and tonally perfect.

How?  Aside from the fact that students overwhelmingly love both Curb and Seinfeld, was he being subversive by implying they think it's lame?

[Twed]

I refuse to see it until there's an entry on https://www.doesthedogdie.com/

[Blue Jam]

I refuse to see it until there's an entry on https://www.doesthedogdie.com/

Our Man In Havana isn't on there and needs to be. I was wondering why 24 Hour Party People was on there but I see they're counting wild pigeons as pets.

I've got to agree with Noodle Lizard that Wiener-Dog wasn't original or clever and was really just a series of loosely-connected half-formed ideas, but I also have to agree with Shoulders:

self-aware it has no need to exist but making the most of it anyway

...what the hell, it was just f***ing funny.

I laughed at the shot of the dog poo trail to a Debussy soundtrack too- just wondering when it was ever going to end was the funny part. Maybe the choice of music was a bit obvious but who cares, it worked.

I think I laughed most at the bullshit story about why Wiener-Dog had to be spayed, with the awful mother talking about

Spoiler alert

her pretty PUREBRED French poodle who loved croissants and was CULTURED and EUROPEAN, and who was then RAPED by a filthy ugly MONGREL called MOHAMMED who had AIDS (even though dogs don't get AIDS) and then Croissant DIED and ALL THE PUPPIES DIED

[close]

- I just liked the way it got more and more nasty and absurd with the mother thinking "Shit, how the fuck do I get to the end of this? Please stop asking me questions son..." and her ugly prejudices coming out, and all with this weird rictus simper on her face. Also the child making more sense than the adult- again it wasn't too original (wasn't the Lion King conversation in Four Lions quite similar in that way?), but it was well done.

Obviously croissants aren't good for dogs, although

Spoiler alert

not toxic like raisins

[close]

- I did wonder if there was something in story #2, with the couple feeding Doody the frankfurter and it not making her ill, like they instinctively knew how to love and nurture while the first couple were too dysfunctional and cold to nurture even a tiny dog, never mind a human child. Maybe a comment on how not everyone who can have kids should have them, and on how some couples that people assume should never have kids would actually make better parents.

In story #3 I think Danny DeVito was actually the least amusing thing. I enjoyed the interview with the prospective student who breezed in wearing his dad's fraternity tie, full of entitlement and deluded confidence

Spoiler alert

despite not being able to name a single film, and the panel still having to press on with the interview

[close]

, the smartly-dressed professor who was aware that the students were all similarly clueless and entitled but who, unlike Professor Schmerz, had accepted that she had to pander to them

Spoiler alert

(and that's why she had tenure and he didn't)

[close]

- they were a bit like Jonatton Yeah? and Dan Ashcroft, surrounded by Nathan Barley-style Idiots. I liked the student

Spoiler alert

wanting to make a film about gender fluidity and Schmerz telling him in the nicest possible way that he needed a fucking plot first

[close]

, and the first student with

Spoiler alert

the vague idea for a superhero character, basically asking Schmerz to write his plot for him

[close]

. I guess Schmerz considered himself superior but really wasn't much better, with his one forgotten film and his new script which he'd willingly made more commercial and compromised on, and deep down he knew it. That whole segment about hopeless filmmakers and their crap ideas entertained me more than the whole of Seven Psychopaths ever did.

It gets a 7/10 from me- it wasn't big or clever but it did cram a lot into a very enjoyable 90 minutes.

[neveragain]

Yes, I thought it was very good too. The last two stories were my favourite - the long scene between the jittery messed-up woman and her blind grandmother was excellent, as was the whole of DeVito's story, how can you say it fizzled out, look at the last two scenes... and his parting line was perfect - and, upon leaving the cinema, I felt the first two could have been developed a bit more in terms of character. But this could be wrong because I was still intrigued by the perfect yet nasty couple and the shy damaged runaway vet.

Definitely a clever choice to produce a lighthearted-looking movie with such dark undertones. Didn't care for the diarrhoea shot. I loved all the jabs at society in various directions and the whole thing made me think about death in an interesting way (particularly the end, even if it may seem trite it made me question the validity of such art).

8/10. Lightning struck twice, and the students were all idiots.

[Former]

Saw this last night with the missus (who had somehow conflated Todd Solondz' perpetual darkness with Chris Guest's mockumentaries and was expecting something akin to 'Best in Show'...)

The funniest bit by some distance is the Mother-son conversation in the first act. Otherwise there were moments of amusement, but it all felt a bit disjointed; the first act segues elegantly into the second, but thereafter there is no explanation of how and why the dog found itself with new owners. It feels a bit like Solondz had a couple of half-finished ideas lying around and shoe-horned them into this without bothering to weave a continuous thread.

The ending would've been so much better if the first vehicle had turned out to be Dawn and the boyfriend in their van. They brake, she turns around in disbelief and realisation, then the other heavy vehicles follow. Maybe the Downs couple died tragically in a house fire and that's how DeVito got the dog? It's not that hard to tie strands together. What's disappointing is that Solondz was a fucking genius at interweaving multiple plotlines in Happiness. Fuck knows, maybe he deliberately keeps thing separate now to irritate me?

DeVito played the sort of characters he always gets these days. Plodding, withdrawn and overly serious, as if still trying to cancel out the whacky 1980s typecasting.

The awkwardness and 'brokenness' in the last act was well executed and typically Solondzian. Overall not a terrible film, but not Happiness either.

[neveragain]

Well, it's not Happiness I'll grant you but I don't think it makes too much difference how and why the dog went from one place to another[nb]Obviously after the

Spoiler alert

bomb was defused

[close]

she would be re-homed so yes it is irritating that there's just the one big gap.[/nb]. Not sure about bringing back Dawn... It might have worked but I like that the stories were separate entities.

Also, I find it odd that you say DeVito is being typecast in these roles. Perhaps what so surprised me about the film was this is the first time I've seen him play a quiet, withdrawn character. The only recent work of his I know is Frank Reynolds of Always Sunny and that's certainly not downplaying anything. Full disclosure: I found his big speech in the dean's office a tad overplayed (too many pauses, looked a bit too meaningful, a choice from Solondz maybe) but apart from that very much enjoyed his performance.

[Noodle Lizard]

Otherwise there were moments of amusement, but it all felt a bit disjointed; the first act segues elegantly into the second, but thereafter there is no explanation of how and why the dog found itself with new owners. It feels a bit like Solondz had a couple of half-finished ideas lying around and shoe-horned them into this without bothering to weave a continuous thread.

Come up with your own criticisms, you bastard:

Unfortunately I wasn't nearly as impressed.  It's basically like Todd Solondz had some vague ideas floating around for a few years in his Notes app, then saw Au Hassard Balthazar and went "Ah, I'll just do it a bit like that" [...] The titular wiener-dog in this is barely even in it, and after the first two "stories" it doesn't even bother explaining how she ends up with the next person. 

Only joking, it's a valid and brilliant criticism.  Which you have stolen from me.  You fuck.

DeVito played the sort of characters he always gets these days. Plodding, withdrawn and overly serious, as if still trying to cancel out the whacky 1980s typecasting.

I don't think I've seen him in a film for ages, but his character in Always Sunny is pretty much the exact opposite of that - to the point where I'd say he was miscast in this purely because it's quite hard to separate him from Frank Reynolds now.