Monday 18 November 2019
10.00 am & 6.30 pm
Directed by Matteo Garrone
Crime/Drama/Thriller
Italy (subtitled)
103 mins MA15+
Dogman has won many awards in 2019 including Best Actor, for Marcello Fonte, at both Cannes and the European Film Awards. However, please be aware that it is not a film about dogs. Instead it concerns bullying and has been described as both disturbing and confronting, with graphic violence.
Matteo Garrone, the master filmmaker behind Gomorrah, returns to the crime thriller genre with this tension filled and relentlessly captivating film.
While painting a frustrating, harrowing portrait of violent intimidation and the price one pays living under it, Garrone presents us with a powerful and endearing portrait of the human struggle for acceptance and courage.
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 bully Simoncino, an ex-boxer who terrorises the neighbourhood. When Simoncino’s abuse finally brings Marcello to a breaking point, he decides to stand up for his own dignity through an act of vengeance, with unintended consequences.
Suffused with a very dark vein of black humour, the film is dramatically tense and emotionally raw. – David Stratton, The Australian
Marcello may remain a mystery, but the thing that makes Dogman worth checking out is the actor who portrays him. It’s a performance that never barks too loudly, but leaves you with an unmistakable bite. – Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Week
A movie with incomparable bite and strength. – Peter Bradshaw, Guardian