Ameriatch One of the best films i have seen

MoPoshy Absolutely brilliant

Lancoor A very feeble attempt at affirmatie action

Skyler Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

ronnie-93574 This movie really made me feel good about being a pet lover and owner. Hope other's take time to watch it to the end.

Time Saver Usually when people make movies they do that for a specific reason. To entertain, to tell a tale, to make a point. This movie has none of those.Although labeled a comedy, not one scene in this movie is funny or even amusing. On the contrary, the majority of scenes are sad, dull and even disturbing. Not only that this movie isn't about dogs; this movie even isn't about the people. There is no specific story or plot, as if the scenes are randomly piled upon each other, giving the impression that something is going on but nothing actually happens.In the end, one would think that there should be an epilogue or any kind of explanation for this confusing story. There isn't. Except in case that the director's idea was actually to put the audience into a state of deep depression and psychosis.This is truly a sad and deranged creation and shouldn't even be called a movie.

D_Burke "Year of the Dog" is a quirky yet poignant comedy. It's not memorable for its laugh-out-loud moments (the few there are), but more for Molly Shannon's terrific and seemingly effortless performance as a woman who has spent her whole life trying to please everyone around her. It's when she finds a cause she believes in that she gradually learns that it's impossible to please herself and everyone else.Shannon is Peggy, a single, milquetoast, unassuming office worker who lives a quiet existence with her dog. You see from the beginning of the film that she has acquaintances, not friends. The camera shows people talking to her in the direct center of the shot, and therefore her eyesight. When the camera cuts back to Peggy, you normally see her just politely smiling and nodding, not responding.Peggy does not seem to mind this style of living. It's only when her dog dies of apparent ingestion of rat poisoning that her life spins out of control.You see Shannon crying a lot during these scenes, and she's very believable. Any person who has ever had a dog for a pet can understand how heartbreaking it is to move on from such a tragedy.From there, the story progresses well as Peggy finds herself going on a date with slovenly next door neighbor Al (John C. Reilly), only to find an open bag of rat poison in his garage that look like a dog went through it. She then gets to know Newt (Peter Sarsgaard), an animal shelter worker who keeps three misfit dogs at his home because he didn't want them to be put down. One of those dogs, by the way, rendered a smaller dog paralyzed. He, however, just doesn't want to see another dog die.Peggy apparently agrees, and begins a self-administered quest to live a vegan life. She brings vegan cupcakes into her office, has fellow workers sign petitions to ban lab testing, and even adopts every dog that is to be put down at her local pound.This film tells very little, and shows a lot, which gives it a lot of depth. The camera shots that represents Peggy's vantage points work amazingly well, considering how simple they really are. When Peggy, while at Newt's house, silently ponders photographs of Newt, one where he is with a woman, and one where he is with a man, no words really need to express what she is thinking. After all, the audience wonders the same thing.You also really feel for Shannon as her well-meaning acquaintances (Laura Dern, Regina King) gradually react to her newfound poli-social stance as if she's on drugs. You also understand the feelings of those who are not quite as sympathetic, such as her boss Robin (Josh Pais).In fact, Pais plays this role with a permanent sneer on his face, as if he's smelling something awful throughout the entire movie. He's one of those actors whose name is not well known, but you've seen him in other things. Still, after seeing this film, you will not be able to get his facial expression out of your memory.The extremes to which Shannon's character goes to protect as many animals as possible are just that: extreme. You can't help but feel for her as she tries to do as many right things as she can, only to find her life falling apart around her. The tragic irony surrounding this film is that she's not an alcoholic or a drug addict, but suffers similar consequences as a result of adopting too many dogs at one point.Of course, you don't blame her for wanting to save those dogs. After all, I'm a dog lover, and I hate to think about dogs dying simply because no one has adopted them. Then again, one dog is a responsibility, and the pet population, as you've probably heard Bob Barker say, needs to be controlled.The film does well balancing the empathetic with the slightly insane, as screenwriter Mike White tends to do with his more independent films ("Chuck and Buck" (2000), "The Good Girl" (2002)). White makes his feature directorial debut with this movie, and provides a great story with images that tell more than most CGI special effects. Even if you don't like dogs, you can't put this film down.

MBunge This is the story of an unhappy woman, her inability to find love or fulfillment in the world and her descent into being one of those crazy animal hoarders you see on the news. Oh, and did I mention it's a light hearted comedy?Peggy Slade (Molly Shannon) is the unhappy woman. She doesn't have a boyfriend and hasn't had one for a long time. At work, she's the assistant to a boss (Josh Pais) who is perpetually paranoid about his standing in office politics and talks to Peggy more like a therapist than an employee. She sees her friend Layla (Regina King) working hard to domesticate her immature boyfriend and get him to propose. When Peggy goes to visit her brother and sister-in-law (Tom McCarthy and Laura Dern), she's regaled with the horror stories of being the parents of two young children.There may have been a point when Peggy was living her life, but now she's just observing hers and everyone else's. She does have a little dog named Pencil that she pours all of her love into and while even that doesn't really make her happy, Peggy seems to have come to terms with what her life is. But then Pencil gets into the neighbor's yard, eats something poisonous, dies and Peggy loses her way. She reaches out again and again to find something that can recreate the unexamined stasis she and Pencil had forged in her unhappy life. First, it's her next door neighbor (John C. Reily), then it's the cute but romantically sterile guy who works for the SPCA (Peter Sarsgaard), then it's an abused dog named Valentine she tries to help, then it's the cause of animal rights before finally, desperately adopting 15 dogs from the pound to keep them from being put to sleep. All the while, Peggy becomes more and more unraveled, emotionally and physically, until she sinks into psychotically violent anger.As I mentioned, this is a comedy, even though the story as described sounds more tragic than humorous. There is a lot of funny stuff in Year of the Dog and it's a tender sort of humor. The film doesn't mock or belittle Peggy and the other characters. Well, it does poke a little fun at Peggy's next door neighbor because he's a hunter and at the mundane parental obsessions of her brother and sister-in-law, but those characters are also presented as the most emotionally healthy and well-adjusted people in the movie. The story's damaged and dysfunctional characters are treated with a gentle respect. We're able to laugh with those characters without them becoming the butt of the joke.Molly Shannon does a fine job as Peggy, giving a much subtler performance than you would expect given the rest of her comedy work. Shannon keeps an undercurrent of sadness constantly bubbling in everything Peggy does or says, without reducing her to pitiful, laughable wreck. Peter Sarsgaard gives a very well-measured performance as a man who seems more socially capable and functional than Peggy on the surface but who is deep down even more emotionally broken than she is. Josh Pais is also very good as Peggy's boss. He's the most overtly comedic character in the story but Pais never lets him become a caricature.The direction in this film is a bit odd. For most dialog scenes between two characters, the movie cuts back and forth between the characters talking directly into the camera instead of showing them talking to each other. It's a technique that's both intimate and somewhat alienating. You feel as though the characters are talking directly to you, the viewer. Yet, that makes it difficult to connect what's being said by one character with the effect those words are having on the other character. It brings you more into the story and takes you more out of it at the same time.Year of the Dog is a movie that's sad without being sappy and funny without being mean. Its ending is an almost total cop out that doesn't realistically deal with any of the themes and issues raised throughout the story, but it's very enjoyable up to that. If you're a dog lover and you're looking for a dog movie that isn't a children's story or a romantic comedy, this is the film for you.