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Year of the Dog
Paramount Vantage


6.7

based on 31 reviews
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based on 18 votes
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MPAA RATING: PG-13 for some suggestive references

Starring Molly Shannon, Laura Dern, Regina King, Thomas McCarthy, Josh Pais, John C. Reilly, Peter Sarsgaard, and Amy Schlagel

When Peggy (Shannon) loses her best friend, a Beagle named Pencil, she emerges from her loss with a new found sense of her place in the world and what it takes to make her happy. (Paramount Vantage)

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Mike White
DIRECTED BY:	Mike White
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: August 28, 2007 Theatrical: April 13, 2007
RUNNING TIME:	97 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

I mean no impertinence when I say that as a portrait of love and grief, writer-director Mike White's exceptional film Year of the Dog deserves the same admiration accorded Joan Didion's exceptional memoir "The Year of Magical Thinking."

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

White's gently perceptive film is a funny, poignant, emotionally honest minor-key character study.

Austin Chronicle Toddy Burton

Dern is hilarious as the obsessive sister-in-law, Sarsgaard plays oddball dog-man to perfection, Pais is perfectly awkward as Peggy's nervous boss, Reilly rocks the subtle humor of Peggy's hunting-obsessed neighbor, and Shannon gives a breakout performance.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Until Year of the Dog, I've never seen a movie where someone obsessed over a puppy.

TV Guide Ken Fox

It may sound as if first-time director White is having his fun at the expense of introverted, asocial people who prefer the company of cats and dogs and gravitate toward animal-rights activism because the very idea of dealing with human problems requires an empathy they can't muster. But empathy is exactly what makes the film work.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

While some may be put off by Peggy's wild-eyed mania, and the film's broadly comic tone, Shannon makes this lost spirit strikingly sympathetic.

Premiere Ethan Alter

Year of the Dog would have benefited from a stronger hand behind the camera (White's general aesthetic basically involves cribbing heavily from Wes Anderson and Jared Hess), but as a showcase for Shannon, it ends up being strangely moving.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Shannon is wonderful as a woman pushed over the edge by the death of her pet in Year of the Dog, a very low-key, well-acted dramedy.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

In Year of the Dog, there are dark moments that are both strangely poignant and bizarrely hilarious. The ending took me by surprise. In a way it's a cheat, a redemption that arrives out of nowhere. But it's also a cosmic joke, a perfectly funny, sincere salute to dog and pet-lovers everywhere.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

The conceit of the movie is that everyone is obsessed by something and never really tunes into anybody else.

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

A rough little comedy of tone. White, making his directorial debut, asks if the search for self is still heroic when the discoveries are unpleasant.

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

One of those quirky little movies that you marvel ever got made.

USA Today Claudia Puig

An engaging tragicomedy, exploring the consequences of single-minded fervor in a humorous and humane fashion.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Despite the gimmicky direction and a disappointing climax, this is a distinctive and unsettling comedy.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

It's funny ha-ha but firmly in touch with its downer side, which means it's also funny in a kind of existential way.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Crust

With pathos competing equally against the often pungent laughs for the audience's attention, it's a movie that is both unsettling and amusing, most comparable to "Chuck & Buck" in tone.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

So oppressive is Peggy's world -- Year of the Dog is the best evocation I've seen of how much worse it is to be depressed in a sunny climate -- that when she finally loses control, it feels more like catharsis than madness.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

Year of the Dog is an enjoyable, patchy, rambling affair, a series of bittersweet comic sketches strung together with thin wire.

The Hollywood Reporter Duane Byrge

Overall, Year of the Dog evinces an appealing sentimentality without being maudlin or only puppy-dog cute.

Variety John Anderson

A satisfying and funny, if ironic, comedy intended for lovers of both the beast and/or sophisticated laughs.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

White delivers another weirdly dark-but-funny story.

Slate Dana Stevens

It's the most thorough portrait yet of the world according to White.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

White throws in a dog-in-peril shot to ensure the audience's sympathies. The ploy works, perhaps too well, turning Year of the Dog less into the askew character study it wants to be than a showcase of lovable-dog shots.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

The ironic, cheery-bland tone, the two-dimensional characters and episodic structure, say "comedy," while the events in the script say "bipolar depression."

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

Shannon gives the movie its inner life. Maybe the movie will give her back her comedy career.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Shannon is flawless.

The New Yorker David Denby

The movie's meaning seems to be: we're all crippled in some way, so just live with it--celebrate it, even. That isn't satire; it's moss-brained sentiment that turns "sensitivity" into a dimly dejected view of life.

Village Voice Rob Nelson

Mike White, writer of "Chuck & Buck" and "The School of Rock" (and oddball actor in both), here directs his latest geek's revenge fantasy like a psychotherapeutically treated Todd Solondz.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

The curious character study is a comedy in a minor key, but for all White's fascination with Peggy, he brings little conviction to the healing message under all this creepiness and social awkwardness, beyond what Shannon brings to the role.

Film Threat Rick Kisonak

Billed as a comedy but it would be every bit as accurate to categorize it as science fiction or a World War II drama. It is simply not a funny film.

Miami Herald Peter Debruge

In Year of the Dog, director Mike White willfully violates one of the great unwritten rules of Hollywood screenwriting: Kill as many human characters as you want, just spare the dog.

The average user rating for this movie is 6.7 (out of 10) based on 18 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Jake T. gave it a1:
"Year of the Dog" is a movie which started out well but lost its momentum as it proceeded. Although the casting was excellent, especially in the supporting characters, the movie became a pro-PETA diatribe by the halfway point. The main character, Peggy, is impossible to empathize with as she becomes a crazy dog lady, and there is simply no reasonable message to take from the film.

Chad S. gave it an8:
And finally, when "Year of the Dog" is on the verge of caricaturizing vegans as hopeless neurotics, the filmmaker dramatizes a sort of disclaimer about animal-rights activists not all being maladjusted loner types like Peggy(Molly Shannon), as we can also see "normal" people on that same bus(en route to a rally), in a closing scene similar to the one in Todd Solondz's "Welcome to the Dollhouse". Peggy isn't alienated to the extent that Dawn Wiener was in the Solondz film, but this could all change, since her vegetarianism is now formally politicized by her forthcoming participation in a public demonstration. Peggy's newfound moral impetus of non-conformity with the social norms(she once aspired towards) will aggravate her social retardation to a degree that platonic relationships(like the benign, but functional interactions she enjoys with her office co-workers), not only potential romantic ones, will elude her as well. When Newt(Peter Saarsgard) indoctrinates Peggy into veganism, he is taking away one of the last vestiges of common ground she shares with ordinary people(which is a natural love for junk food; their reaction to the soy cupcakes is an indicator of Peggy's future). "Year of the Dog" should've gone in a direction more organic to its "Wait Until Dark"-like scene of near-violence, but this barbed comedy is still a pretty grim affair, made all the more sadder by Peggy's heart-on-a-sleeve optimism.

Ryan P. gave it a2:
Dreadfully trite and completely vapid. Molly Shannon's acting is superb throughout the film, however, the main 'love' affair of the film is entirely unbelievable and one-dimensional. The script is poorly written and every character outside of Peggy (Molly Shannon's character) is pathetically simplistic. I understand the main character is supposed to be somewhat of a tragic hero, but the idea of an adult human being with this type of mental tunnel vision able to function without constant care is ridiculous. Next, the plot functions slowly and without purpose, the primary conflict reaches a boiling point only to wrap itself up copasetically without any major consequences. On top of all of this, the film also sucked.

Aaron L. gave it a10:
Thought provoking; not afraid to intermix issues; real; and very enjoyable, cute and fun. This was a great movie.

Andrew K. gave it a6:
Wow. I can't believe how harsh some of these reviews were. I consider myself to be a good judge when it comes to films. I guess I can see some of the things that people are saying, but I loved this film myself. Molly Shannon, while I worried at first that I wouldn't be able to take her serious due to her facial expressions reminding me so much of her silly characters on SNL, really surprised the hell out of me. She was amazing. I hope that this will bring her more work, because she is very good. I completely related to the way she would be the good listener with everyone she knew even though she really wasn't as interested in them as she pretended to be. Maybe that sounds shallow of me, but I think that a lot of people make their problems out to be so important to the people around them and sometimes all you can do is nod and humor them. Maybe some of the characters were a little one dimensional, but I don't really expect much more depth in these peripheral characters. I think the point is that she's not really all that interested in them because they actually do lack depth. Needless to say, I thought that Laura Dern and Peter Saarsgard and Regina King and Josh Pais did a great job. They were all irritating in some way, especially Laura Dern, who reminded me of some of the parents my mother has to put up with as a teacher. I can see how some would compare Mike White's directorial style to Jarod Hess. It did have a Napoleon Dynamite type feel, and it even featured one of the same songs near the end of the film. This was a very sweet movie and I think that the statements it makes about animal cruelty are actually very important and are not meant to be taken as a joke. Molly Shannon's character is very real. I felt great sympathy for her. I don't know what separates the people that don't like this movie from those that do, and so I think that it deserves a shot from all movie lovers.

Jimmy R. gave it an8:
I loved this little movie. It offers so much more than one might expect. Laura Dern (& the guy who plays her hubby) are both dead-on hilarious. I'm a private tutor and I work w/clients like these people daily. I had to avert my eyes during their scenes, it was too painful. Sarsgaard and Shannon both do excellent work, and Josh Pais (the boss) is scarily hilarious. I strongly recommend.

Jack Smithee gave it a1:
The movie is an hour and a half of awkward silence interrupted now and then by drab caricatures. The actors are all good, but the characters are unlikeable and unbelievable. So many elements rang false I don't know where to begin. A neurotic woman who is terrified of allergies has 4 fur coats? In Southern California? I'll admit that I was biased by the trailers which portrayed the movie as a quirky romantic comedy, but I love dark, eccentric character studies and this was just tedious.

Year of the Dog Paramount Vantage

Year of the Dog
Paramount Vantage