Dogman (Italian Film Festival, Mini Review)

This is not a movie for people who like dog videos. Actually, I don't know who this is for.

Dogman begins with a rhythm that seems to point towards that this film will be plot less and focus on character with the occasional turning point to let the film tread some more ground. Well, by halfway the film becomes one about trivial things. The actions are heavy, the main character Marcello gets hit several times at one point and even goes to gaol. The heavy-handedness of it all wouldn't normally be a problem for me but it's an imbalance of a crime film and Iranian-esque character piece that makes the film suffer.

Andrei Tarkovsky said, “relating one person to the whole, that is cinema”. I can see the effort from Matteo Goronne here but like the tone of the narrative, it's a battle between two sides. Marcello is a man who cares for his daughter. He tries to make the most of the limited time he has with her. Then in the scenes in between, he’s a pushover who gets into no good. It’s hard to empathise with him as he lacks foundation. There are a lot of people who go through what he does but as an audience member, we’re never given a reason to truly relate to him. This may be because I never felt the director himself cared the way he should’ve.

Dogs are small and easy to control if trained correctly. In a way Marcello is a dog, he’s a pushover who gives in easily. He lets his dog eats his dinner instead of making the dog eats its own. Marcello’s nemesis here is the local troublemaker, Simone, whom he sells drugs to and helps get into some trouble. You could say Simone is his own but in the end, the film asks the question, albeit too late to captivate any attention, “does the owner walk their dog or does the dog walk their owner”?

There were a few scenes with violence but they felt needlessly out of place. It was inconsequential to the things the film could be focusing on.

Garrone’s film is two in one but at the same time neither. It walks a line between a human condition character piece and crime film. Something I don’t think has been pulled off and Dogman isn’t the one to break the code. This is probably a film for someone but it’ll take its time to find its audience.

Things I didn't touch on this mini review

• Marcello Fonte's Cannes winning performance

• The dirty cinematography that would've looked better if shot on film

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Dogman is playing the 2018 Italian Film Festival

What did you think of this film?

PS check out Mother of Mine at the festival, I saw it at SFF and it's the kind of drama that I like to see be made. It's grounded and intelligent but anyone can watch it.