Year of the Dog
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Movie Reviews of Year of the Dog
Movie Review: loved this movie
Summary: 4 Stars
Molly Shannon was great. So real with a controversial topic. Funny and sad at the same time.Movie Review: Good, until it loses focus
Summary: 3 Stars
"Year of the Dog", written and directed by Mike White ("Chuck and Buck", "School of Rock") and starring Molly Shannon (most well-known for her work on "Saturday Night Live"), is a low key comedy that starts off in a promising fashion but ultimately becomes tiresome.
Peggy (Molly Shannon) is a single office worker living in her large house in the San Fernando Valley with her small dog, Pencil. Peggy idolizes her beagle, spending as much time as possible with him, enjoying every activity he partakes in, eating with him, sleeping with him. Peggy also enjoys bringing baked goods to the office (doughnuts, muffins, etc.), and stands sentinel as her office workers enjoy the treats and thank her for the goodies. One evening, Pencil wants to go out in the middle of the night, so Peggy opens the door and goes back to sleep. The next morning, Pencil hasn't returned. As she investigates, she hears him barking from the neighbors and knocks on Al's (John C. Reilly) door. They find Pencil in his backyard, sick. Peggy rushes him to the vet, but it is too late. Upset, she returns to work but can't concentrate. Her friend, Layla (Regina King), thinks this will finally help Peggy find a man, the dog was a distraction in her life. Her brother, Pier (Josh Pais) and sister-in-law, Bret (Laura Dern), don't offer any help because they won't discuss d-e-a-t-h in front of their young daughter. One day, Newt (Peter Sarsgaard), a worker at the vet's office, calls Peggy and asks her to adopt a German Shepherd who just arrived and will probably be put down. Peggy gladly takes the dog and asks Newt to help her train him. As they work together, Peggy becomes attracted to Newt. But will he return her affections?
"Year of the Dog" begins in a promising fashion. Director White and Shannon have created a very real portrait of a lonely woman who lives through the one being who returns her affection, her dog. There is a lot of richly observed comedy as we watch Peggy go through the motions of her life. She stands in the kitchen, eating her frozen dinner as she watches Pencil eat his dinner. She smiles and laughs as Pencil enjoys his time romping around at the dog park. She sends out Christmas cards featuring a picture of her and her dog wearing Santa caps. At work, she tries to offer encouragement to her boss, she seems to derive pleasure from the minimal, grudging attention she receives from her co-workers when she brings doughnuts (they're barely able to say `thank you'), and she is shocked, but hooked, on her conversations with Layla about her friend's love life.
Shannon does a great job of giving Peggy nuance that you might not find in a normal, run of the mill comedy. When she visits her brother and stepsister, she watches impassively as the married couple explains their philosophies of child rearing and discusses the treatment of their nanny. She is nervous, in an understated way, when she goes on a date with Al and then on another date with Newt. This all works very well.
The supporting cast is also very good. John C. Reilly makes a memorable appearance as Al, the neighbor who tries to commiserate with Peggy. An awkward lummox, Al's attempts to offer sympathy are laughingly misguided. Peter Sarsgaard is also good as Newt, the trisexual who enters Peggy's live; he loves men, he loves women, he loves dogs. Laura Dern is great as the waspy Bret, who believes she is the perfect mother; notes line almost every surface, reminders of policies, allergies, do's and don'ts.
A good indication of how low key this film will be can be found in two of the character's names... Peggy's last name is Spade and Newt's first name is, well... Newt. If you haven't already figured it out, these two pet lovers are named after what all pet lovers, including Bob Barker, feel you should do to your pets. Have them spade or neutered. It is an eccentric touch giving us an indication of how offbeat the filmmakers want "Year of the Dog" to be.
After the film gets going, and Peggy meets Newt, she begins to want to impress him. He is a vegan, so she becomes a vegan and starts espousing the ideals of that lifestyle. Then, she tries to help Newt find places for all of the animals that need homes. Then, she begins to find out about refuges; farms and other habitats that take in animals and help them live a more natural life. This is all interesting for her character, but it becomes a bit preachy. As she learns new things and becomes invested in them, director White seems to want to educate the audience as well. This wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, but the education is not subtle. Also, given the audience for this film, I suspect most of the people who will attend a screening of "Year" are at least familiar with these ideas. It becomes a bit like preaching to the choir. It also becomes tedious and brings the story, the humor and the characters to a grinding halt.
It is nice to see Molly Shannon in a leading role, something that shows off her gifts as a comedian and an actress. Her previous film work has been very broad and only highlighted the same comedy she is already known for from her years on "Saturday Night Live". Here, she is playing what could conceivably be a real person, just a bit funnier. It is a nice performance that will hopefully lead to many more.
This is director White's first film; his previous credits have been as a writer. He shows some promise; he is able to plumb the little moments in a normal person's life for humor, but this film is not a great effort. It is ultimately too slow, too meandering and too preachy for its own good.
Movie Review: Self-Discovery and an Alienating Social Conscience Intertwine in One Lonely Woman's Life
Summary: 3 Stars
It's a woefully uneven film that seems longer than its 97 minutes, yet Molly Shannon brings her particularly individualistic appeal to the role of Peggy, a diffident, socially awkward secretary whose most meaningful relationship is with her beagle Pencil. The attraction is understandable as the dog is adorable and attentive, whereas the people in Peggy's life are too self-absorbed to get past either judgment or indifference of her solitary existence. As he showed with his script for 2002's The Good Girl, screenwriter and first-time director Mike White has a unique way of presenting characters' idiosyncrasies onscreen that seems both bemused and generous. He brings Peggy's quiet desperation and passive acceptance to life with extended shots that seem almost taken from still-life photos. The inevitable occurs, and Peggy's feeling of culpability spirals her into despair groping for what she should do next.
Most of the 2007 film deals with her tentative journey, and while much of the film is driven by character-driven laughs, there is a deepening sense of melancholy with every episode. Toward the final stretch, White unfortunately carries things too far and has Peggy go into extremities before finding her destiny, and her behavior at this point threatens to upend the goodwill generated by what happened before. Regardless, he has assembled quite an impressive cast to inhabit his somewhat askew characters starting with Shannon who manages to convey Peggy's loneliness with surprising subtlety. Consider that this otherwise slapstick comic actress has made her reputation on spastic, almost intolerable characters like Mary Katherine in Superstar or Val, the obsessive, kleptomaniac neighbor in several episodes of Will & Grace. Instead, her low-key portrayal comes close to Jennifer Aniston's exemplary work in The Good Girl.
Returning from that movie in typical hangdog fashion, John C. Reilly plays Peggy's lunk-headed neighbor who admits to killing his own dog in a hunting accident, a revelation that exposes his fascination with guns and dead animal heads. Regina King is her sassy self though oddly encouraged to play over-the-top as Peggy's sassy office co-worker Layla, whose own relationship with a philanderer unmasks as much desperation as Peggy's situation. Laura Dern is flat-out hilarious as Peggy's sister-in-law Bret, a well-meaning control freak married to overly cautious Pier played by Thomas McCarthy. There's also a funny turn by Josh Pais as Peggy's Dilbert-inspired boss, and Peter Sarsgaard takes a lighter but still bizarre turn than usual as Newt, the passively manipulative, sexually confused dog trainer who really sets off Peggy's darker side.
The 2007 DVD comes with quite a few extras starting with the amusing, off-kilter commentary by White and Shannon. Their chemistry continues in a seven-minute "Moviefone Unscripted with Molly Shannon and Mike White", where the two ask each other questions from Moviefone users. There is the obligatory making-of featurette, the sixteen-minute "A Special Breed of Comedy: The Making of Year of the Dog". Those were satisfying enough, but there are also three additional shorts of only marginal interest - one focusing on the training of the dogs used in the film and the other two brief, four-minute profiles of Shannon and White. One extended and seven deleted scenes are included as well as a three-minute gag reel and a quick photo album of unique images presented as an insert reel.
Movie Review: Not to be confused with one of White's more commercial films
Summary: 3 Stars
Peggy's dog Pencil is her whole life, so when Pencil meets an untimely death, Peggy (Molly Shannon) finds herself lost and in need of a replacement for him. This leads to Peggy becoming involved with two men, Al (John C. Reilly), who collects knives and hunts for sport, and Newt (Peter Sarsgaard), an animal rights activist, and ultimately leads to her changing her whole outlook on life.
Writer/director Mike White's films can be divided into two categories: the commercial comedies (including "School of Rock" and "Dead Man on Campus"), and the not-for-everyone's-taste, independent movies that sit precariously on the borderline between comedy and drama (including "The Good Girl" and "Chuck and Buck"). "The Year of the Dog" falls very much into the latter category, so if you're considering watching this film based on the DVD cover claim "from the writer of "School of Rock"", then you might like to give it a bit more thought. The same applies to the cover claim that this film is "hilarious". It is a funny film in parts, but I would class it more as a drama than as a comedy and the humour is of a more adult style than in "School of Rock".
As with "The Good Girl" and "Chuck and Buck", White tells the story of an unusual person in an unusual and yet plausible situation. Peggy is unusual in her extreme devotion to animals, in particular her dog and the situation that she finds herself in after Pencil dies is not one that most people are likely to find themselves in, and yet, I could imagine someone like Peggy existing in the real world. Again, as with White's other movies, White doesn't provide any simple solutions to the problems Peggy faces. There is no Deus Ex Machina to save Peggy in the final act and for that I was disappointed (what can I say, I like happy endings), but also grateful because a Deus Ex Machina would have gone against everything White had set up in the previous acts.
Of White's independent films, "The Good Girl" is still my favourite, but "The Year of the Dog" comes in a close second, and if you are interested in seeing one of White's "other" movies then this wouldn't be a bad place to start.
Movie Review: Disappointing.
Summary: 3 Stars
"Year of the Dog" is the directorial debut of Mike White, the screenwriter behind the Jack Black-vehicles "School of Rock" and "Nacho Libre" as well as the quirky comedies "Chuck & Buck" and "The Good Girl."
Here, White (also the writer) tries to serve the same kind of quirkiness featured in "The Good Girl," but "Year of the Dog" is NOT quirky. It's just downright creepy...And not funny. Molly Shannon (never very talented in my opinion) plays Peggy, an office manager and dog lover. She lives a life of solitude with her dog Pencil and frequently visits her brother and sister-in-law (Laura Dern). It's clear from the beginning that Peggy is a little loopy. After Pencil dies; Peggy's sanity seems to break down. She goes on a date with her next door neighbor (John C. Reilly, who steals his few minutes) and than finds a kindred spirit in a dog lover named Newt (Peter Sarsgaard). John C. Reilly and Peter Sarsgaard are both really talented; As is Regina King, who plays Peggy's friend, but even these terrific actors can't hold this film together. Sarsgaard has always brough to mind a younger John Malkovich, his voice is definitely similar...But here, playing a possibly-gay and psychotic dog-lover, he just doesn't work. He plays his role as good as he can and he plays it better than most actors could have...But the part isn't that well written. Shannon is good as Peggy, she works...But she's not one of my favorite actresses. This movie is not terrible, but not being terrible doesn't make something good. I looked for qualities in "Year of the Dog" that could make me like the film and there is one or two funny moments (Reilly in all his scenes for example and Sarsgaard in the scene where he cries "Valentine killed Buttons!"); But other than that, this film is, essentially, a failure. Sad, considering the talent involved.
GRADE: C-