Year of the Dog

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.