Dogman

It leaves a very bittersweet taste, [spoiler] but someone had to kill the bully in the neighborhood. [/spoiler]

Hard hitting Italian crime / revenge drama. Marcello Fonte is very convincing as the naive but well meaning father pressured into some questionable actions. The ending is a little ambiguous but its till works.

An excellent social drama that leaves you with acid in your stomach. Masterfully directed actors, excellent set design and a good soundtrack. A great product of Italian independent cinema. That's it.

Good movie with interesting development and a very real main character

A somewhat typical crime revenge story that’s elevated by a director with great instincts. The cinematography and lighting are quite well done (really nice sense of place, grim atmosphere, good compositional work throughout), love the Bicep needle drop as well as the confident slow pace. The characters and acting are good, though it’s only the eccentric protagonist who truly pops. A bigger problem is that the film only becomes memorable once you get to the second half. The first half isn’t bad, but the set-up and character work feel a little conventional. You can tell it’s holding back all of the emotional pay-off for the finale. Once it gets to that point though, it’s really satisfying, it’s exactly as brutal and grim as you’d want it to be. Some more experimentation would’ve improved the film, but the more accessible end result here is still recommendable.

6.5/10

A well made modern fable

Loosely based on a real-life incident, Dogman is an intimate character drama telling the story of an inherently good man who pays the price for attempting to foster a friendship with an irredeemable and sociopathic brute. Directed and co-written by Matteo Garrone, the film operates on the level of both social realism and as a kind of modern-day Aesop's fable, as filtered through the sensibilities of a Martin Scorsese or a Francis Ford Coppola. Postulating the somewhat nihilistic view that, when pushed to extremes and backed into a corner, man is no different than a dog, the film returns Garrone to the mob-infused milieu of his breakout, Gomorra (2008). And whilst it isn't a patch on Garrone's masterpiece, focusing a little too much on allegory and not enough on self-contained narrative beats, it's still an accomplished piece of work.

For my complete review, please visit: https://boxd.it/xYxip

At first, “Dogman” tricks you into thinking it is just the usual parable of the oppressor and the oppressed, but as the story progresses, it reveals itself as an equally brutal, ambiguous and fascinating reflection on human instincts and drives. In the end, is it the story of a man who failed to tame the beast? Or is it the story of a beast who kept being loyal to the wrong man until he was inevitably forced to respond to his instincts and finally bite back?