Dogman [Sub: Eng]

Matteo Garrone's unflinching character study... has a strong chance at the Oscars because of Fonte's expressive performance

The naively amenable character is wonderfully observed by Fonte, and early scenes show delicious whimsy and black comedy.

The overall feel is of the kind of Aesop's fable Scorsese would tell his kids.

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.

This isn't all that much of a mystery... Garrone's oppressively bleak new film isn't memorable enough to help us with that. Woof.

A teeth-chattering culmination of Matteo Garrone's darkest themes.

If Fellini had made gritty ultra-violent movies they would have looked like this.

What's most amazing about Dogman is its ability to speak truthfully using metaphor and extremity. It's art.

Garrone's film is a one-note loop of a persistently passive man.

Garrone excels at gradually increasing his vice grip on an initially joyful, humanist milieu.

It's all surface level stuff, and while it's appropriately grimy, it's like being punished and chastised for something you already know to be true.

By redefining the dichotomous categories of "victim" and "executioner," Garrone creates an intriguing coming-of-fear story.