Dogtooth

Dogtooth, a bizarre black comedy from Greece that won the Un Certain Regard prize at the 2009 Cannes film festival, involves a conventional middle-class family--mom, dad, teenage son, two teenage daughters--that turns out to be warped beyond belief.

The film effortlessly examines hefty themes like freedom, toxic masculinity, privilege, familial bonds (and the need to escape them).

A brightly lit nightmare of patriarchy run amok.

Dogtooth is slightly less self-congratulatory than the average Dogme movie, a few of which belong to Lars von Trier. This feels, instead, more like an extreme summer at a Dadaist acting camp.

A highly original black comedy from Greece -- and one of the weirdest movies I've seen in a long time.

Horror and cold humor commingle in Dogtooth, a Greek import whose screenwriters approach scenario construction like misanthropic social scientists planning an experiment -- one whose result suggests that governments might want to rethink policies allowing parents to home-school their children.

The father is the only one who can leave the house to go to his factory job, and that seems like a paradise for viewers trapped watching this clinically shot claptrap.

this movie is disturbingly funny and ultimately sad, leaving you to ponder what is next for this family of creatures we have come to know. i give props for the courageous performances and for leaving thoughts and ideas that will linger long afterward.

In retrospect, the word "Hilarious!" on the DVD cover seems like a sadistic joke. The moments of dark, nasty humor in this movie have little resemblance to hilarity; at the same time, you can't look away. I'm not a big fan of allegory, so feel that dissecting "Dogtooth" as a statement about fascism is overwrought and unnecessary. On its own -- with its nihilistic weirdness so creatively framed and filmed -- it is haunting and thought-provoking. Hated the ending, though.

This movie is exeptional. It's not a movie from which a viewer should seek existential metaphors, but it should be regarded to aesthetically. From that point of view it is nothing short of spectacular!

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

I love disturbing movies, independent movies, foreign movies--I thought this film was tailor made for me. However, by the end, the gratuitous violence, repeated crassness, and shock after shock after shock had worn me down completely. This is a movie with great potential and an excellent premise, and several scenes are very well done. But the movie is so obsessed with being Disturbing (capital D) and Shocking that it feels like you are being repeatedly hit over the head with a sledgehammer. Exhausting! This film is not funny, or entertaining--it is hard work. I much preferred Haneke's Funny Games and even von Trier's Antichrist (though the last also grew monotonous and difficult to watch, I felt it had more artistic merit, and frankly I was less bored).