X
- 2019
- Not Rated
- Magnolia Pictures
- 1 h 43 m
- 2019
- Not Rated
- Magnolia Pictures
- 1 h 43 m
Summary In a seaside village on the outskirts of an Italian city, where the only law seems to be survival of the fittest, Marcello (Marcello Fonte) is a slight, mild-mannered man who divides his days between working at his modest dog grooming salon, caring for his daughter Alida, and being coerced into the petty criminal schemes of the local bul...
Directed By: Matteo Garrone
- 2019
- Not Rated
- Magnolia Pictures
- 1 h 43 m
- 2019
- Not Rated
- Magnolia Pictures
- 1 h 43 m
Dogman
71
8.0
Where to Watch
Summary In a seaside village on the outskirts of an Italian city, where the only law seems to be survival of the fittest, Marcello (Marcello Fonte) is a slight, mild-mannered man who divides his days between working at his modest dog grooming salon, caring for his daughter Alida, and being coerced into the petty criminal schemes of the local bul...
Directed By: Matteo Garrone
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 29 Critic Reviews
71
76% Positive
22 Reviews
22 Reviews
24% Mixed
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 29 Critic Reviews
71
76% Positive
22 Reviews
22 Reviews
24% Mixed
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Perhaps the most impressive thing about a hugely impressive exercise in directorial control is the fact that we come away from an intensely violent film, a film where bones crunch and blood smells, touched by pathos and a strange sense of hope.
A hyper-realistic urban tragedy Dogman is ferocious and in its own way, much more frightening than “Gomorrah.”
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 56 User Ratings
8.0
84% Positive
47 Ratings
47 Ratings
11% Mixed
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
5% Negative
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 56 User Ratings
8.0
84% Positive
47 Ratings
47 Ratings
11% Mixed
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
5% Negative
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
Marcello, a dog groomer, commits petty crimes for Simoncino, a former boxer who terrorizes the neighborhood. The abuses of the criminal, however, push the man to take matters into his own hands.
For me, this film is Matteo Garrone's true masterpiece: the cinematography portrays a roman suburb with post-apocalyptic "Mad Max" atmospheres. Each shot is a painting and is functional to the next one. Garrone's direction is well-kept and leaves nothing to chance, the film keeps you in suspense until the very end and what can I say more: an unmissable film.
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Abetted by Nicolaj Brüel's prowlingly ominous camerawork and Dimitri Capuani's soul-destroying interiors, Garrone proves once again that even the lowest-rung southern Italian gangster can't afford a shred of human decency.
The naively amenable character is wonderfully observed by Fonte, and early scenes show delicious whimsy and black comedy...but as the film’s numbing brutality takes hold the character’s passivity makes the action drag in places.
The lead performance, from the mostly unknown Fonte, is a small symphony of crumbling ingratiation: the portrait of a good man trying to cling to his principles in the face of stubborn, selfish immorality.
Fonte, it must be said, gives an expert performance as a saintly scamp who “blooms” into a butterfly of vengeance. I might have bought what he’s doing in a different film, but the one that Garrone has made strains too hard to have it both ways.
Subtle as a great dane, and less convincing than a show poodle that’s trying to pretend she’s an untamed stray, Dogman is an obvious and strained little movie.
(Mauro Lanari)
Origin story of the antihero of the moment with puns between underdog, dog, god, doug and drag, it starts from a news story and spills over into a rough and sensationalist cinecomic with the now inevitable Hachi effect as already in the incipit of the John Wick saga. If the genesis of the more or less villains continues to attract, perhaps it is because no one knows that the genealogy of the negative has already been completed by Ricœur and the first Greenaway.
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This Italian drama claims to be based on real events, if this is so, maybe it needed to be left to the newspaper headlines then archived. It’s a tragic tale of human injustice, the plight of a simple man (Marcello) struggling to make ends meet by running a dog grooming shop but who’s constantly bullied by a moronic, vicious ex-boxer-thug. While Marcello’s separated from his wife, he somehow manages to always have enough money to take his young daughter on snorkeling holidays. This money seems to come from his dabbling as a local peddler of coke – something he also foolishly uses himself.
In good company, this simple man might possibly be a reasonably respected citizen(?) but under the violent influence of the brutish thug, and not being able to defend himself from constant heavy standover tactics - he allows himself to sink into the depths of crime he mostly wants little part of (or so it seems...?)
After taking a prison rap for the activities of the thug, he begins to plan his revenge. It’s a sad indictment of human frailty and how others can push the vulnerable into shocking life-altering situations. It’s hailed as an Award winner but like so many of today’s ‘Award’ winners - there’s little to enjoy and less to recommend it - unless you happen to have a thing for tales lifted from society’s file of low-life-losers. Cinematography is good in its own dismal way and the lead performance is effective.
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Production Company
Archimede,
Le Pacte,
Rai Cinema,
Canal+,
Ciné+,
L'Aide aux Cinémas du Monde,
Eurimages,
Regione Lazio,
Film Commission Regione Campania,
Ministero dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali e del Turismo (MiBACT),
Comune di Castel Volturno
Release Date Apr 12, 2019
Duration 1 h 43 m
Rating Not Rated
Tagline Everyone has a breaking point.
Awards
David di Donatello Awards
• 9 Wins & 16 Nominations
Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists
• 8 Wins & 10 Nominations
Golden Ciak Awards
• 5 Wins & 7 Nominations
