Dogtooth (2009)

O...that was...sure something... So, Yorgos Lanthimos has officially become one of my favorite filmmakers working today and perhaps of all time. He relishes in the kind of absurdity, unpretentious artiness, dry black humor, and disturbing horror/tragedy I love so very dearly, and these elements can all be clearly found in 'Dogtooth', his third and first truly notable film. Here, many important motifs of what has developed into the Lanthimos style can be found and are really mastered. While I personally find 'The Killing of a Sacred Deer' to be the better film, I can definitely see some arguments for 'Dogtooth' being the man's masterpiece thus far. It is an original and gross and totally compelling work that kind of feels like what would have happened if the first half hour of 'Bad Boy Bubby' was stretched out to fill up the length of the entire film and just replaced the rest of it all together (if you've seen 'Bubby' you might know what I mean; if not, it's less likely but you still might know what I mean (I hope (I guess))), and, since 'Bad Boy Bubby' is far and away one of my favorite films, any possible comparison to it that is not directly meant to showcase how the non-'Bubby' film is absolute trash in one way or another is a very high compliment. However, I feel like a film like this one should come with some kind of warning. Even for the guy who made stuff like 'The Killing of a Sacred Deer', some of the scenes in here are genuinely shocking. The sexual explicitness far exceeds that of your standard film (American film in particular), and many of the sex scenes do not feel simulated. Now, if you're like me, this is, if anything, a mild-to-moderate plus on the film's part, but if you're a Catholic nun or something I do not recommend it. Anyone else with an open mind and enough patience to sit through an arthouse drama with a slower pace should see this whenever they see fit. It's definitely a unique and, for weirdos like me, somewhat enjoyable (please don't take my usage of that word in the wrong way; I mean, I seriously think the movie is at least a little entertaining, there's plenty of weird, off putting laughs to be had and it is unnerving enough on a minute by minute basis that I was almost always glued to the screen) experience that I'd like to mention also has a very subversive-sort-of visual style, as many of the camera angles are intentionally awkward and just slightly off in some way in order to add to the overall mood of the piece, which is another little motif of Lanthimos (although it is nowhere more apparent than it is here, as many of the shots in a film like 'The Killing of a Sacred Deer' (exemplified for the third time in this single review, nice going me) are beautiful to look at and do not feel awkward or off at all and instead are incredibly perfect and necessary, but still do have some uncomfortable atmosphere about them, of course) that I find absolutely fascinating.

Short and Simple Review by WubsTheFadgerFirst off, I'm not a big fan of foreign films, but this one blew me away. The story is mysterious and tense throughout the entire film. The plot is dark, disturbing, and at time horrifying. The dialogue is mostly good but there are some dodgy moments. The story shows how impressionable the human mind is and how we can be driven mad by the abuse and secrecy of others. The only part of the story that I don't like is the fact that there are a lot of unanswered questions.The acting is all around great. Christos Stergioglou, Michele Valley, Hristos , and Anna Kalaitzidou perform well. Angeliki Papoulia and Mary Tsoni bring a pure sense of innocence to the screen. They both perform above standard and truly captivated me with their stellar performance.The pacing is mostly smooth and the runtime is perfect. The amount of nudity is not that bad and the amount of gore is minimal (I had heard that it was worse).Pros: Disturbing story, great acting, amazing performances by Angeliki Papoulia and Mary Tsoni, good runtime, and a good use of nudity and goreCons: Some dodgy dialogue, some slow pacing, and a lot of unanswered questionsOverall Rating: 8.1The only other foreign film I have seen besides this is The Hunt which I loved. I understand that ambiguity can be great, such as Inception and Memento, but I was really hoping for some answers to all the mystery.

Authority is a person or organization having political or administrative power and control. Governments have authority on their people or on other states. Understanding the fact that authority is the reason of major events that we are not aware while time is swift. We should consider of our parents as an authority in minor scale. This is exactly what Dogtooth wants us to think of.Authoritarian father, his wife and his children live in peace and quiet isolated house with the garden. All events that happen is known by the father who obsessively wants to raise his children with his rules and his understandings. There are no diversity between the children to ensure consistency like the governments do. In the name of becoming uniform, children have no names. Hence, they can not develop their identities. They are all same to the father which is ruler. There are rules for everything and the rewards for achieving tasks. If we have rewards, there must be punishments too for the unsuitable actions. These are strong components of the system which runs by the father. Language is created by parents too. They change words' meaning like in pussy and zombie scenes. That is another example for use of power. Beside that, he keep his authority on his children in patriarchal way. He assigns task for his elder daughter to satisfy her brother who had previously a woman to meet his sexual urges like a robot. On the other hand, there is even no chance to talk about his daughters. Raising his children with this attitude keeps them stay in their childish behaviors. We can view that in many scenes such as arguing about the plane toy and sleeping with their parents. They can not grow to maturity.Children obtain information about everything without questioning from the tape which has recorded before. It is their only way to learn something such as geometry. We have also seen that in the record player scene which the father makes wrong translations for maintaining loyalty to the authority and the family. He also ensures his sovereignty by this action. Fear is another need for achieve his monopoly. All the dinners should be attended formally. Remember the scene that his daughters discusses their dresses are okay or not. Because they are afraid of their fathers reaction if he finds anything improper. In order to block interactions with the outer world between his children, father removes all labels and tags on the products they use. This idea makes me think about the North Korea. People of North Korea get what their leader gives.All the mess begin with the woman who is a security guard. When she wants to misuse elder child for the first time, elder starts to learn from her about the outer world. Because of routine of reward system, she did not hesitate to fulfill her demands and maintain the same attitude for her sister. Movie tapes leaves bigger impression for the elder. The idea of leaving started to grow. However when she decided to leave, she tried with the way that defined by the father which says they can only leave if their dog-tooth's fall down. Another example of outer world encounter is the cat. It becomes another fear and misery for the children. Misery always pull people to its unknown that the father uses a lot.Finally, I want to add two more things which light upon. First one is mirroring between the dog trainer and the father. They both work for "cultivating" of their "pupils". Second is perception of happiness. Whether if we talked about father's actions is proper or not, children are happy to be there. It is like us in our tiny worlds without realizing anything out of it.

Having recently seen Yorgos Lanthimos' "The lobster", I was well aware of what to expect from this early job of his. Maybe "The lobster" weakened the punch that only the first film from a director can deliver. Perhaps altering the viewing order would have swapped my opinion in both films. Or perhaps I simply find Lanthimo's essay in family bonds, seclusion and education flat and too unnatural.Yorgos Lanthimos' fresh breath in cinema is always welcome. The weird and tense atmosphere of Dogtooth is masterfully crafted, if sometimes over the line and beyond. The overuse of explicit sexual themes and some graphic scenes may drive some people away. While some are there for a reason, many are thrown in for pure shock value.Yet it is the forced innexpressivenes of the actors that bothers me the most. Trying to recreate a mechanical, unaffective behavior of three teenagers raised in seclusion, their lack of expression goes often over the top failing to create any kind of response on the viewer. The lack of sense in some of the parents' actions and the children's lack of any analytical skill doesn't help a film that goes too far to reiterate the same concept over and over.Dogtooth's open ending may fit best a film of his kind, but ultimately leaves the viewer with too hollow a sensation of non- conclusion after over ninety minutes of reiteration.