Year of the Dog (I) (2007) User Reviews

Self-Discovery and an Alienating Social Conscience Intertwine in One Lonely Woman's Life

[EUyeshima · 6/10 · 2 September 2007]

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 judgment 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 on screen 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 slapstick, spastic 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.

Pointless discomfort

[Chris Knipp · 6/10 · 23 April 2007]

It is surprising to realize that Mike White has not directed a film till now, because he's such a distinct film presence, but it's also disappointing that 'Year of the Dog' is such a distasteful and ultimately tedious effort, perhaps too much of a good thing. But 'Chuck and Buck' was also maddeningly irritating. In that, which White wrote, White himself played an extremely annoying, clueless gay man (which one would have thought was a rare commodity) who played around with another guy as a boy and then expects the man, who's grown up and straight, to be interested in his advances as an adult. The Good Girl was funnier. It depicted not just a single idea but more of a social world, and its Middle America dimwits were not handled too condescendingly; White's writing struck a balance, and Jake Gyllenhaal's character had some hilarious lines.

Mike White has done television, and wrote the very funny 'School of Rock' and the pretty funny 'Orange County.' He almost seems a formula writer (a successful one, in his TV writing and Orange County), except that his taste for the embarrassing and odd is recurrent and obvious. Chuck and Buck, which somehow seems White's signature effort, was one embarrassing scene after another. The question with 'The Good Girl' is, Are these people being made mean fun of, or are they being viewed sympathetically though they're a bit dumb? White has acted films he wrote and others, including the embarrassing, tasteless and borderline awful 'Star Maps,' directed by Miguel Arteta -- which at least led to a fruitful collaboration since Arteta directed White's Chuck and Buck and 'The Good Girl.'

People seemed to love 'Chuck and Buck.' They thought it was witty and edgy. I thought it was just embarrassing and borderline homophobic. No, make that out and out homophobic. White is involved in movies of the kind I like to call "Todd Solondz lite." In them strange people get involved in situations that are uncomfortable to watch, but it's never made clear what we're supposed to think; the filmmakers themselves don't seem to be able to make up their minds. White is just being a little different, avoiding either being earnest or being witty. The titillation people get out of his work is that they laugh, and then wonder if they're supposed to, and they find that interesting.

Year of the Dog is not earnest and it's not witty. It doesn't know what it wants to be or what its main character is meant to be. Can she be both ridiculous and pathetic? Can we laugh at her and still sympathize with her? Why would we want to sympathize? These are typical "Solondz lite" questions. Peggy (comedy actress Molly Shannon, and not a very interesting actress or someone you want to look at through a whole movie) is an office worker who has no life. She is forty-something but has never dated, and her emotional world begins and ends with her pet dog, Pencil. Pencil eats something he shouldn't and dies and Peggy is devastated. She begins behaving strangely, overacting her dog love. She starts helping out with people who get people to adopt dogs. She adopts a vicious German shepherd and gets a guy named Newt (Peter Sarsgaard) from the vet's to train him. When that leads to disaster on the canine and human fronts she becomes wackier. She steals funds from the office to donate to animal rights organizations and winds up adopting fifteen dogs from the pound. Along the way she has dated her neighbor, Al (John C. Reilly), who is contrasted with Newt. Newt is a sensitive soul who's also dysfunctional, "celibate," but unable to have a relationship "with a woman, or with a man." He's a vegan and Peggy becomes one, at that time imagining that she and Newt may become a couple. Al loves hunting and meat. Peggy gets into serious trouble, including a hostile situation with Newt, but then is forgiven and gets her job back despite embezzling company funds. If the story was turning dark at some points, it goes all mushy at the end. That is a routine "Solodnz lite" ending; but while such movies have at times been surprising and thought-provoking, this one is simply odd and irritating and hard to sit through.

There are excruciating things in 'Year of the Dog' but also implausible ones. It seems unlikely that Peggy's sister-in-law Bret (Laura Dern), who seems to represent the overprotective mother (and little else), should have a whole rack of fur coats, just to annoy Peggy. White is pushing around advocacies and dysfunctionalities randomly rather than representing reality or telling a story. One increasingly has the feeling of being inside a hermetic bubble containing White's preoccupations and observations that's completely artificial and not very interesting, just uncomfortable. This seems a hell of a way to make a movie, but people laugh at it, because they don't know what else to do, and the fact that they don't know why they're laughing makes them think this is an original kind of humor.

Big disappointment

[dmasursky · 5/10 · 23 December 2008]

There's hardly anything to add, since many have commented on this movie and expressed my opinion of it. Great cast, great performances - that must be acknowledged. But not at ALL what I expected. I thought I would be seeing a touching story of a bereft pet lover, instead it's a 90 minute ad for PETA. No real emotional growth on the part of the protagonist, no real emotion at all in the film. And the supporting characters, while funny and quirky, are exaggerated stereotypes. The whole experience is just completely unsatisfying, unless animal rights extremism resonates with you. Thank goodness I watched the Making Of featurette, wherein the director says he wanted to put a character front and center that would be in the periphery in most movies. O.K., that helps me understand what he was going for, but I still wouldn't recommend this film (except to a couple of friends and family members who are unnaturally obsessed with their pets).

I din't like this movie much. Hard to identify with its reason for existing.

[TxMike · 31 October 2008]

This is a story about an apparently lonely woman who is always smiling and cheery at work, not assertive with her boss, always accommodating for her brother and his wife, especially to babysit, and happens to have a dog named Pencil that she is strongly attached to. When Pencil turns up dead, her world begins a slow turn upside down.

Molly Shannon is good in a serious role as the grinning Peggy. Thomas McCarthy is her married brother Pier, and Laura Dern is the sister in law Bret.

Josh Pais is her supervisor Robin, while Regina King is her co-worker Layla .

John C. Reilly is her next door neighbor Al, who loves to hunt and has heads of stuffed animals in his home. Plus a nice knife collection.

Peter Sarsgaard is Newt, the slightly off-center animal lover.

One problem I have with this movie is all the characters are strange, and not by just a little bit. Peggy loses her dog and all the choices she makes after that don't seem very sensible. And maybe that was the point, but it did not come off as very interesting to me.

Sit. Stay (Home)

[hellokristen · 6/10 · 11 April 2007]

I thought I was going to see a funny movie. I came home feeling suicidal.

If I wanted to see a pathetic over-40 woman who has bad dates and lives alone with the pets she dotes on too much -- I woulda stayed home and stared in the mirror!

I thought: "I love Molly Shannon! She's so funny. And Mike White -- he wrote 'School of Rock'. This should be HILARIOUS!"

Wrong. This was just pathos, pathos, pathos.

Single gal is sad and pathetic at the beginning. Sad and pathetic in the middle, and to my mind, sad and pathetic at the end.

Molly is lovely and acts well, but VERY few laughs in the movie.

And if you think "I love dogs" -- don't see this cuz the dogs don't come out so well.

(Also -- No cute guys.)

Why do so many great comedy actors (Robin Williams, Jim Carrey) decide to suddenly turn dramatic? We don't need any more dramatic actors. They're a dime a dozen. What's RARE is someone who can make us laugh. And God knows, we all need it. (Esp. after seeing a movie like this!)

So Molly, get together with your funniest writer friends and write a comedy worthy of your talents. I really don't need to see you having a nervous breakdown again.

(And what is it with movies with "Dog" in the title? They're all about women who can't get a date. This one, "The Truth about Cats and Dogs", "Must Love Dogs", "Dog Park".)

How to become a pet-obsessive in 10 easy lessons.

[lastliberal · 6/10 · 10 November 2008]

This was probably not a good movie for me to watch. I have had to put two dogs down and one just died on me. If you are out digging a grave at 5.am., bawling your eyes out, then you know what someone goes through when they lose a pet.

So, I could empathize with Peggy (Molly Shannon) and see how she could be easily swayed by Newt (Peter Sarsgaard). She was vulnerable and was easily pushed over the deep end.

It is unrealistic to think that friends, family, and co-workers will be so understanding. That only happens in the movies.

But, it was nice to see her follow her passion. That was the plus of the movie that focused just a bit too much on animal abuse.

Far from being a bit of a dog's dinner, this independent film about grief and social alienation does enough to illicit a positive response.

[johnnyboyz · 6/10 · 26 September 2011]

Year of the Dog is another one of those films attempting to get under the skin of the notion that comedy and one's potential to fall into madness, at least cinematically, are closer than you initially think. As a matter of opinion, comedy and madness, or the idea that a character can loose control of their surroundings after having existed within the realms they occupied for so long, can indeed go hand in hand; they can play out in a balanced fashion, particularly when there's something especially biting or satirical about it, resulting in pieces from recent years along the lines of Verbinski's The Weather Man or Harron's American Psycho. Take this, and sprinkle in a little bit of sub-text to do with contemporary suburban America and the oddballs one would seemingly encounter within such an environment, and you have what people like to describe as an "off beat" film trying to cover some serious ground, albeit getting tangled up somewhat in the process.

Year of the Dog's lead is Molly Shannon's Peggy, a middle aged American woman living alone in a nice American neighbourhood, on a nice estate, in a decent house and with her pride and joy in the form of her pet dog she names Pencil. To say she loves Pencil understates things somewhat; she all of adorns him, lavishing attention on the thing no end – even allowing it to sleep with her on her bed come the nighttime which, to some, would be the beginnings of madness before all the strife has really begun. The pair of them are so attuned to one another, and she to the species in general, that during walks in the park, Peggy cannot help but stare lovingly at all the other pooches owned by all the other people doing as she does now, while Pencil is even granted some brief screen time of his own when he agonisingly watches her back out of the driveway to get to work thus, he is tragically left all be himself. Peggy's life is what it is: single, but more than happy with her pet. Where her boss has his work and Peggy's brother Pier (McCarthy), plus his wife Bret (Dern), have their very young children, Peggy has her dog.

Her boss is Robin (Pais), a largely inanimate gentleman with a reservedly cold tone. He outlines certain harsh realities in his office that morning at work, the background of his composition busy with a motorway in the distance plus traffic charging in either direction; hers, in comparison, is the rest of the office: a stilted and quieter set of items on show highlighting respective positions in life as specific facts broadly linked to ability and qualifications are mercilessly outlined. Her work colleague is the busier Layla (King), an African-American woman with a penchant for films; a cheating partner and some pretty lousy advice for our heroine when things get tougher later on. Those things arrive when poor Pencil dies, a mysterious death at a relatively young age when he is heard yelping and yapping one summer's morning out in a neighbour's back garden. It is Al's (Reilly) garden in which Pencil is found, dialogue with the man revealing he too lost a dog when he was very young and helped combat it by maintaining an interest in hunting. Briefly, the film' hypothesis rears up and it is no mystery as to why the scenes with Al work as well as they do, with this idea of grief, and ways in which to deal with grief, simmering beneath a surface while never fully blooming out into a constructed whole.

What follows is a film essentially showing to us why it is that, at least socially, our Peggy could never quite hit it off with humans and found such solace with animals. She comes to occupy lonely places peppered with bright hues of colour; breaks at work scored with music you'd more than likely hear rolling out over a baby's crib as a parent attempts to get them to fall asleep, very much instilling a certain child-like sensibility about her. We observe Peggy effectively begin her life anew, the death of Pencil the upsetting of the established norm and systematically launching her out onto a slide downwards in psychological well-being when she is forced from beginning again at the bottom in acquiring a new dog and rebuilding. Trips to family members Bret and Pier feel unnecessary; the mutual affiliation she has with Newt (Sarsgaard), a pound working animal specialist, are tied up in there somewhere while a sub-plot to do with co-worker Layla's man having an affair known only to Peggy is dropped in for good measure.

On the overly positive side, Shannon does well to carry the film; doing so with that look about her face, that expression which constantly suggests a deeper, more unremitting sense of tragedy and pain beneath an exterior which you could be told is one of a joyous person, and yet still be moved to ask questions. She has something going about her alluding to stark emotion just waiting to explode out of her that has, so far, been repressed. Things connect and link up with one another uneasily in Year of the Dog, and the electricity is only sporadic in its arriving to the forefront; the idea of the grief and confusion born out of the death of a pet not working quite so well as other ideas did in the aforementioned examples, but making for a film straddling a line between blackly comedic urban drama and a flat-out tragedy asking us to just break down at get seriously upset. Over it looms the ghost of Jeunet's 2001 film Amélie, and while at times its politically imbued content gets the better of it, often forcing it to come across as a Vegan convert video or a self-aware animal rights promotional film, it holds up its end neatly enough.

Ultimate Bait and Switch film

[stevepat99 · 3/10 · 6 September 2007]

I had been trying to nail down what about this film bugs me. Then I again read the film's DVD jacket which promised a film that was "quirky....amusing....and...funny," a film about a woman, Peggy, who is described in exacting detail as:

A happy go lucky woman who has many friends who appreciate her and a job that utilizes her skills. She Has a nice home and she has her beloved dog Pencil. Presently, she chooses to be single. Then something happens that sends her into the dog eat dog world of searching for love.*

WOW, I'm thinking ....devoted pet owner, romance, comedy, laughs, the search for love! All the elements needed for a 'different' slice of life film. So what is bugging me? Perhaps the bait and switch marketing approach which found me viewing a vastly different movie.

The movie I viewed delivered a very dark story (albeit some funny moments) that chronicles the emotional deconstruction of Peggy in all its depressing fashion, from frame one to film's end, to wit:

Peggy's beloved dog Pencil tragically dies of toxic poisoning. Her new replacement dog Valentine KILLS a smaller defenseless dog. Valentine is then put to death. Peggy attempts to kill (knife) her neighbor. Peggy commits a felony against her sister by maliciously destroying thousands of dollars of her sister's property. We see Peggy's metamorphosis into an obsessed animal rights advocate. Peggy attempts to show her young niece how chickens are slaughtered. Peggy's sister and brother-in-law are understandably distraught. Peggy embezzles from her employer and is fired. Peggy takes 15 dogs into her home where they run wild using her home (pardon the phrase) as a LITTER BOX. The dogs are removed from her home on the basis that Peggy is now MALTREATING ANIMALS.

After needed psych treatment Peggy feigns resurrection by first returning to her home and job (yes her employer actually takes her back) and then in a flash turns her back on all. Peggy's animal rights obsession resurfaces with a vengeance. It compels her to drive off, on a distant animal rights mission, leaving home, job and family behind. For the first time in her recent life Peggy is also, can you believe it, PETLESS.

New title for this amusing, quirky, searching for love, funny and pet loving film: Petless, Friendless, Jobless, Familyless, Homeless, Loveless BUT Happily Obsessed!

* Also misleading. In the film we never see Peggy embarked on any search for love. Two men initiate brief dead end involvements in her life.

Dog People are People Too

[moutonbear25 · 8/10 · 21 April 2007]

Dog people. When I think of dog people, I think of my friend, Lloyd. He's got this puppy, Andy. Andy's got his own personal walker, play dates on weekends and some pieces of his wardrobe are more stylish than mine. Despite being the dog that has everything, the most important thing he has is Lloyd. If you spend any time with this twosome, it's hard to tell who loves who more. Some people say that owning a dog is selfish, that having another living being depend on you and give you nothing but love in return only serves the owner's ego. I guess these people forgot about the natural human need to nurture. I suppose these people also have not had the chance to see Mike White's YEAR OF THE DOG. White, writer of indie faves CHUCK AND BUCK and THE GOOD GIRL, makes his directorial debut with the simple tale of one woman, whose tightly wound life of disappointment unravels after the death of her dog, a beautiful beagle named Pencil.

Before Pencil's unexpected passing, Peggy (Molly Shannon) spent her days with a permanent smile on her face. Whether she was at the office comforting her boss (Josh Pais) while his neuroses got stuck in spin over office politics, or at the mall listening to her colleague (Regina King) yammer on about her boyfriend's commitment issues or even walking on eggshells while visiting her brother and his overprotective wife (Thomas McCarthy and Laura Dern), Peggy never frowned. Sure, she never found her dream job or got married or had any kids of her own. But why should she let that bother her? She has her health, a home and Pencil. Finding herself without Pencil though finds Peggy feeling lost. The beauty of White's script is that Peggy is not suddenly lost but only suddenly realizing that she has been for years. Anchoring this decent into the depth of an internal fear that has been avoided for years is Shannon. As Peggy, she never fully abandons her comedic luminescence but shows new sides of her range, including fragility, determination and sparks of buried hope. She sits one night in a passenger seat at the end of a date. Her suitor (John C. Reilly) asks without tact if she has ever been married. The woman who answers no longer has the strength or the desire to pretend anymore. She simply stutters through an evasive response and stumbles as she exits the car.

Pencil's death leads to her meeting Newt (Peter Saarsgard), a dog trainer that coaches her how to tame her newly adopted dog, Valentine, while unknowingly waking a part of her heart thought long to be dead. Meeting people is easy. Getting to know people is tricky. Navigating a relationship through the hope and apprehension that comes after years of potentially difficult experiences can be more than enough to make you run home to your dog. For Newt and Peggy, neither has had much success with other human beings. Other human beings are complicated and come with their own set of expectations. Animals on the other hand, want very clear things from you, like food and attention, and, in return, give you unqualified love and admiration. You don't have to think about what to say to a dog when there is an awkward silence. There is no experience to be had with a dog that mirrors the dance between two people who are trying to figure out whether this is or isn't the right time to kiss the other person. And while all of this can be infuriating, it should not be forgotten that this is an excitement that cannot be had with a dog.

White's script works because he does not categorize the characters but rather allows them to grow into themselves, no matter whether that self fits into society's mold or not. As a film however, YEAR OF THE DOG, is occasionally just as awkward as its characters. White's direction and cinematic approach are often static and flat, ultimately taking away from the warmth of the whole. Thankfully, Peggy's late life journey towards embracing her true self is so winningly portrayed by Shannon that the film's cinematic limitations never go from flaw to fault. By the time she realizes that her own compartmentalized cubicle life bares its own resemblance to the life of a dog in a pound, she sees that it is also just as wrong for her as for the dogs. After all, dog people are people too and if there's anyone out there who should give you unconditional love, it's yourself.

couldn't make headz or tailz.........still good

[beauzee · 7/10 · 19 November 2014]

molly's alright with me, a great actress. movie is a fairly successful attempt at "black comedy", a serious but loopy look at dog worship...and obsessiveness in general.

many opportunities to make this a 9er or 10er, but no, golden opportunities swoop in and...out. molly's next door neighbor is a taxidermist who gets up the nerve to ask out his cute neighbor, molly (who has lost her pet!). not gonna give the whole thing away, but does the Director "connect" her paranoia and his unusual hobby? (you'll find out). and why does the Director let molly become a Hitchcock character when just a very *neurotic but nice person* sells the character and story?

if you love molly, buy the DVD now.

Depressing Movie

[chrisbo52 · 3/10 · 29 September 2007]

I know others liked this movie, but this was a depressing movie. I felt Peggy was so unstable and needed some mental health care help. This is truly a woman that has no life and then gets so obsessed she seems ready for a rubber room. I love animals, but this movie shows how some people can get so unhealthily obsessed with things that it controls their whole life. Molly did a good job of acting and playing this poor pathetic character. But, she is so unstable that not only does she become a danger to herself, but others, too. This just wasn't an enjoyable movie. This shouldn't be in the comedy category, it's mostly drama. This was our Saturday night date movie, so really put a damper on the whole night.

A movie for animal lovers and haters

[j-ward · 9/10 · 16 April 2007]

Most Americans have at one point in their lives experienced love for a dog or a cat. This movie captures that feeling and yet it shows what can happen when a person lets this love become all consuming and it does a great job. This is my personal favorite movie of 2007.

The characters that make up the movie are caricatures but yet they represent something real in all of us and and the themes in the movie accurately capture many issues that Americans face in contemporary society. What I like best is that "dog haters", if such people exist, will find much to enjoy in the movie as well. This is because the dark side of animal love is given equal time and thought as is given to the beauty of giving your heart and soul fully to the love of animals. Moreover, the main character is as easy to laugh at as to cry with.

This isn't some silly comedy like most of the other movies with dog in the title which are all in my opinion dogs. This is a black comedy with penetrating insights into issues that have a lot of proponents on opposite sides of a long spectrum. If you like to see a movie where you can check your brain in at the ticket booth then this one is probably not for you. If you like to be enlightened as well as entertained, check this out because in addition to giving the viewer a well thought out look at canine animals, this film is a brilliant portrayal of the psychology of the human animal as well.

An interesting film; not exactly of the "feel good" variety.

[Hey_Sweden · 7/10 · 13 April 2017]

Screenwriter and actor Mike White gives 'Saturday Night Live' alumni Molly Shannon an impressive starring showcase in this creditable filmmaking effort. Molly shines as Peggy, a secretary who gets along better with animals than she does with people. Her whole world is devastated when her beloved pet beagle Pencil is poisoned. Circumstances for her get more and more ridiculous as she begins to embrace veganism and animal rights activism, to the detriment of what few relationships she has with people.

While it is understandable that we can lose some rooting interest for Peggy as she goes over the deep end, she's still a somewhat sympathetic and relatable character, at least for viewers who've never really "fit in". If you're going into this one blind, just be aware that it's more of a seriocomedy, with some rather dark elements, than a "girl and her dogs" laugh fest. As has been pointed out, the characters in this story that are the most compassionate about helping animals are shown to have some definite issues. Still, since they obviously have big hearts, one does hope for the best and hope that they get the help that they need.

The acting is uniformly fine from a talented ensemble. Molly is well supported by Regina King, Laura Dern, Tom McCarthy, John C. Reilly, Josh Pais, and Peter Sarsgaard.

While not all that realistic, this is a reasonably intriguing tale about one individuals' desperate need to find their purpose in life.

Seven out of 10.

This is not a comedy!

[pattysdoscher-11-799307 · 1/10 · 25 March 2011]

This movie has got to be the worst movie I have ever seen. I watched it on Netflix and they said it was a comedy. Well, it wasn't. I laughed at the one part where she had 15 dogs in her car and that was it. She became insane the more she seemed to "like" animals. She didn't really take care of them. She let them do whatever they wanted. Anyway, this movie was a complete waste of my time. Don't waste your time on it. I expected more from Molly Shannon. I expected something smart and funny and all I got was dumb and boring and weird. There was nothing good about this movie. It was a strange movie and at the end, I was like "is that it?"

Lost and Found

[tieman64 · 10 December 2012]

Mike White's "Year of the Dog" stars Molly Shannon as Peggy, a frail, submissive, emotionally sensitive woman who spends her days taking abuse, being snidely judged and dutifully working at a dull, white collar job. Free time is spent cuddling with Pencil, Peggy's pet dog. The duo watch TV, eat microwave dinners and sleep together like a seasoned couple. Peggy's mocked by her coworkers, family, friends and boss. She takes it. Pencil doesn't judge her.

When Pencil dies, Peggy traumatically confronts the fact that she has been pushed towards life's margins. Single, childless and "of a certain age", the dog's death sparks an existential crisis. Peggy responds by becoming increasingly neurotic. Realizing that society's apathy toward her dead pet masks a larger cruelty, a larger social violence, Peggy veers wildly in the opposite direction. She becomes an "animal lover" who "takes cares of animals". Later she funnels money from her company's business account into the accounts of various PETA-like charities. She also becomes a vegan. Mike White is himself a vegan and PETA activist.

Far from a political tract, though, the film paints Peggy as a supremely messed up individual. This has led to animal lovers bashing White for painting animal lovers/vegans/PETA etc as nut-jobs who "love animals" because they "can't get along with humans". But "In The Year Of The Dog" is doing something completely different. This is Errol Morris territory, White painting everyone as being as neurotic as Peggy, be they overprotective parents, yuppies, work obsessed bosses, hunting fanatics, marriage-fixated dopes or lug-headed consumers. Everyone has their own obsession, their own symptoms. Indeed, Peggy's obsessions may even be less dead-ended, shallow and self obsessed than that of others in the film. But only marginally.

While White spends most of the picture skewering the idea of "universal truths", "normalcy" and "mental health", he's also clear in his painting of Peggy as a highly messed up individual. The question the film asks is whether self-actualisation - Peggy's act of finally "becoming someone" and "asserting herself" - is itself a kind of hollow fiction; who you are is what you aren't, everyone is neurotic somewhere, all neuroses mask a desire for control, and what you do masks only what you can't. The Self is not only Other, but total damage.

The film ends with Peggy boarding a giant bus packed with other animal lovers and activists. Her transformation into a radical is both mocked and celebrated. Once a doormat, she's now a warrior. Once a victim, she's now fighting back against a society that sweeps violence under a facade of kindness/normalcy. But Peggy's makeover is also something pathetic. She is who she is because she can't function any other way.

8/10 – Worth one viewing.

Produced by Brad Pitt and directed by Mike White, the maker of the legendary hilarious comedy Office Space.

[imseeg · 7/10 · 14 August 2018]

Very subtle comedy. But it angered lots of viewers, which makes it even more special. Produced by Brad Pitt, but dont expect an action picture or something. I just got to know of this movie because Brad Pitt has got a real good knack for producing quality movies. But this comedy is only suited for those who understand subtle tongue in cheek jokes. Lots of viewers thought of it as boring because they didnt understand the tongue in cheek humor of the behaviour by the characters. Lots of others got angry because there are a lot of politically uncorrect characters in this story which ofcourse will upset the masses who expected to see a nice, clean cut comedy. It isnt. It deceives you and then it hits you, gently though...

The director and writer of this movie, Mike White, has also made the legendary and hilarious movie called "Office Space", also about neat and clean office workers, who eventually go wild. Come to think of it most of Mike White's movies are about office workers or other boring characters that suddenly get entangled in the wildest action plots. Really hilarious stuff, but again only suited for those who get the subtle tongue in cheek jokes, the masses probably will find it somewhat boring or be really offended if they let their kids watch it...

The strength of this movie is its subtle story, in which we start with a clean and neat office worker lady, who is as law abiding and decent as one can be. But the more this nice lady becomes aware of what kind pf cruelties are committed to animals in the meat industry the more she starts revolting. And because of this ever climaxing anger by this previously law abiding lady her actions become ever more dangerous and violent. But in a hilarious and innocent way. Very tongue in cheek.

Suited for the whole family, everyone could like it, especially if you are an animal lover. But not suited for the politically correct masses...

A fairly funny movie about a very sad story

[MBunge · 6/10 · 25 July 2010]

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.

AN opposing Point of View

[dgarwood · 7/10 · 27 May 2007]

Don't take Professor Klickenberg's comment too seriously - he does his Bitchy best to deride this film for the the actor's appearances, and it made me sick and motivated me to write this. THis is a sweet film, and much like a lot of Mike White's quieter work, is very evocative of 1970's independent film. It reminded me of Scorcese and Bogdonavich's work in that era. It defies expectation, and is has a narrative that is beautiful in its simplicity and complexity. It's not a story about loud noises and high concepts, it's a story about people who are flawed - in appearance, emotional development, and self awareness. It's a great little film - I saw it directly after seeing Pirates of the Caribbean III and it was such an antidote to that overproduced and written sequel. This is a story about people, warts and all. And to Professor Klickenberg - dial down the bitchy. If you're such a perfect specimen, post a pic so we can all wallow in your wonderfulness. Otherwise, quit attacking actors in this film, take a deep breath and look in a mirror. Then attack. That's the person you really hate. Cheers!

sick, Sick. SICK.

[bmcdannell · 1/10 · 20 April 2008]

Too bad there's a length limit on comments, because I could write volumes about how incredibly awful this movie is. To those who saw this as some sort of commercial for PETA, I'd suggest you go back and watch it again (but I wouldn't suggest anyone watch this garbage even once, let alone twice). Did you not notice that the two characters who cared anything about animals were severely damaged goods? Far from being a pro-PETA piece, this movie strongly implies that the only reason anyone cares deeply about animals is because they are incapable - for one reason or another - of functioning in human society. To those who thought this movie was "warm" or "funny" - if your idea of warm or funny is to watch a slightly introverted but otherwise competent woman sink inexorably into a downward spiral of psychotic madness replete with larceny, child abuse, animal abuse, vandalism, betrayal, and attempted murder - then this movie may be just your cup of tea. And to those who identified with the main character - I implore you to get professional help as soon as possible.

I've read many of the other comments and want to correct a few points that I believe are misperceptions: 1. Peggy was not a sociopath at the beginning of the movie - she was a fairly introverted but otherwise normal person. The fact that she could deal competently with an obviously paranoid boss, maintain a normal, healthy friendship with a coworker, remain friends with a thoroughly unlikeable brother and sister-in-law and engender the affection of her spoiled niece all indicated that her initial problems ran no deeper than being a rather homely wallflower who had compensated for her lack of an intimate human relationship by being closely - but not pathologically - attached to her dog.

2. Newt was not gay. If you paid attention to what he said, you discovered that he was abused terribly in childhood - and the most probable reason that he was unable to have an intimate relationship with either a woman or a man was a not-too-subtle suggestion that this abuse produced a physiological rather than psychological incapacity (mutilation? castration?).

3. Peggy is not headed toward some sort of happy ending at the end of the movie, but rather has retreated fully into psychosis. The crimes to which her delusions have led her are not crimes she will be able to walk away from - and her fully psychotic state will only lead her to commit more in her deranged desire to protect animals.

4. Many commenters claimed that the people around Peggy didn't care about her loss of Pencil. On the contrary, each character she came into contact with expressed their sympathy and at least tried in some way to comfort her. That some of their methods were crass or counter-productive does not diminish their underlying empathy.

The movie's primary detestable assumptions are that a) anyone who has a close bond to animals only comes to that bond because they are incapable - for one reason or another - of forming healthy bonds with other people, and b) that people so bonded to animals are hopelessly blind to reason. About midway through, the movie abandoned any pretext of being an exploration of feelings and emotions and became nothing more than a sick, twisted attack on animal lovers. One of the principle evidences of this transformation was when, discovering that the German Shepherd had killed the disabled dog, Peggy rushes to the pound to try to save the German Shepherd. PETA or not, no animal lover in possession of their senses would contend that a dog that attacks and kills another pet (let alone a person) should not immediately be put down. And no animal pound in existence would entrust another fifteen dogs to the care of such a person, no matter what credentials they claimed.

I suggest that the writer of this awful, awful piece of work has some deep issues with animals - and is completely incapable of understanding that love and empathy are not the sole province of human-to-human relationships, but rightfully - and healthily - should extend to a genuine care for all creatures - great and small.

I could list many, many other ways in which this movie's portrayal of people who care about animals was screamingly unrealistic. And yes, I "get" dark comedy...but there was nothing comic about this. It was nothing more than a myopic, mean-spirited portrayal of dementia - and I'm afraid I can find nothing either entertaining or funny in that.

This is a great little film.

[flashdanz_Asspantz · 8/10 · 16 July 2007]

I am actually tempted to call it "heartwarming" though I've never used that term to compliment a film. Each character is a balance between an exaggerated stereotype and frighteningly accurate portrayal. White treats his characters with subtlety and respect while allowing them to be as ridiculous as we modern humans are. Laura Dern is a genius with her painful and precise rendition of a sterile post-modern mother. As are all the leads; wonderful to see so-called "character actors" given space to breathe. If you were looking for "school of rock" or "orange county" you may be disappointed, but if you were intrigued and moved by "chuck & buck" "year of the dog" might hit the mark. This film felt, at times, reminiscent of the work of Todd Solondz, in that the characters can be both absurd and realistic simultaneously, and (as I see it) both directors are careful to avoid exploiting their characters. White's story is more traditional and warm than most of Solondz's work, though, many viewers will likely find "dog" exclusively "too depressing" or just "funny", and probably not "funny" enough.

Overall: Really lovely and well crafted little film that is both serious and silly, without being melodramatic or wacky: a triumph considering the subject matter. It has already landed a spot near the top of my short list of favorite recent films (its a desert out there these days, this is a glass of pink lemonade).

Nice light-hearted indie chick-flick with a side of seriousness

[oneloveall · 6/10 · 26 August 2007]

A cute little Dramady that balances it's opposite emotions quite effectively. Molly Shannon is the real surprise here, showcasing a wider range for more subtle humor and emotional depth then anything she has previously worked on. Writer and Director Mike White starts to come into his own in this minor enjoyable work, stepping out of the shadows of his collaborative work and proving himself a sensitive and perceptive filmmaker.

The movie works best in it's quieter moments, White and Shannon are able to combine their efforts into articulating awkward silences at an impressive rate. The gentle affair starts with a fun pace but seems to loose what little steam it carries around halfway through as we delve into Shannon's deeper issues of fulfillment. Still, Year of the Dog remains a pleasant enough diversion to recommend as noteworthy distraction.

Awful.

[jamie-lee-pcmb · 1/10 · 11 January 2009]

I watched this movie today and decided to look it up on IMDb after to see what rating it was given. I was curious, because it was easily one of the worst movies I have ever seen.

I was surprised that other people have given it such a good rating. I didn't think it was funny or clever.. the only interesting thing about it was how bad it really was. Molly Shannon's character is probably more hateable than the antagonist in the movie (her neighbor). She is annoying, irrational, unreasonable, radical... and worse, neglectful to the animals that she pretends to love so much.

Shannon is supposed to come across as someone who would jump in front of a train for any animal, but instead, she is extremely selfish in everything she does. She does not think about the welfare of animals, instead she makes decisions that would allow her to feel better about herself. She is the one who is responsible for her first dog's death as she allowed him to escape, and then she has the nerve to put the blame on her neighbor. She forges cheques from her boss's bank account to animal rights groups. When she adopts the 15 dogs, she does not consider whether or not they would be comfortable and safe in such a confined living area. She breaks into her neighbors house and tries to stab him because she thinks that he reported her for keeping too many dogs in her house (which, by the way, he would have had every right to do). The list goes on and on.

I am an animal lover and I did not like this movie at all. If you're desperate for an animal movie, I'm sure Marley and Me would be a better bet.

I don't have much new to add, but this film is unfortunately being overlooked

[zetes · 8/10 · 30 April 2007]

I'm a sucker for movies about people and their pets. This film stars former SNL player Molly Shannon as a secretary whose personal life revolves around her beagle, Pencil. When he passes away unexpectedly, she has to find another reason to go on. The film first hints that she'll discover the world of humans around her, particularly men, as two new ones (John C. Reilly & Peter Saarsgard) enter her life. But it smartly steers away from the obvious and veers into a more original voyage of self-discovery. My only real problem with the film is that a lot of the supporting characters are a little too caricature-esquire (notably Shannon's boss, played by Josh Pais), but writer/director White does a good job of redeeming them for the most part. A very touching, gentle film that's well worth your time.

Dog poop

[kbdbabeb · 1/10 · 29 July 2010]

This movie goes absolutely nowhere in an hour and a half. No substance at all. Do you really think after making a movie like this and then watching it that everyone involved actually thought they made a decent movie. Blah! If i had paid for this I definitely would have asked for my money back.

No imagination ruins this movie from the beginning. A dog dies and that is the most exciting part of the movie. Then you get watch an hour of mindless acting.

Just when you thought something might happen that would add to the story it died just like the dog. How people can rate this movie high must have been high.

A "dog" of a movie

[wbkezw1 · 1/10 · 22 January 2008]

I found a DVD of this movie on the shelf at the library. I should have left it there. About fifteen minutes into the film I was somewhat intrigued. By the time I'd reached thirty minutes, I was gasping for air, but had to watch the rest to see if it would ever recover. It didn't. I still have a problem deciding if it was meant to be a black comedy or not. Surely, this story of quirky characters and the situation in which they find themselves was not meant to be taken seriously. I love animals as much as the next guy, but to see people who take their love of animals to such extremes just made for a bad movie. The best actor was Pencil the dog, who had the good sense to die early on.