Year Of The Dog (Mike White, 2007)

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Antoine Doinel
Joined: Sat Mar 04, 2006 5:22 pm
Location: Montreal, Quebec
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#1 Post by Antoine Doinel »

Trailer.

Looks like a great cast and a sweet film. I'm looking forward to this.
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Fletch F. Fletch
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 7:54 pm
Location: Provo, Utah

#2 Post by Fletch F. Fletch »

Los Angeles Times Making Of article

Premiere's Q&A with Molly Shannon

New York Times' profile of Shannon
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zedz
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 11:24 pm

#3 Post by zedz »

It's not a bad film, nicely shot by Tim Orr in OCD symmetry. Molly Shannon is good as the nice girl going off the deep end with compassion overload (dog owners will identify like crazy), but her downward spiral reads more bumpily than I think White intended. One of the nicest things about the film is the ending, which artfully dodges the "reassertion of mainstream norms" it seems headed for. Some fine supporting work from the ever reliable John C Reilly, the lively Regina King, a slippery Peter Saarsgaard and a very funny, very prissy Laura Dern.
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Antoine Doinel
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#4 Post by Antoine Doinel »

Saw this tonight and it was disappointing and certainly much heavier, and stranger than the trailer suggested. Tim Orr's cinematography was "nice", but felt like a hugely watered down version of the Wes Anderson/Jared Hess school of perfect framing and symmetry. The cast themselves save the film from being any worse than it is, for the film's chest thumping "veganism-as-path-to-self-fulfillment" comes dangerously close to being strident, not to mention completely overlooking the complete selfishness disguised as sacrifice of the ending.

That Mike White said he wrote this in the wake of losing a pet isn't surprising, but it may have helped to wait a few months before putting pen to paper.
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