Wiener-Dog Review

Sometimes a movie comes around where I know nothing about it and that movie ends up being completely insane and bonkers. Wiener-Dog is one of those movies.

Wiener-Dog is a dramedy (drama-comedy) written and directed by Todd Solondz and stars Kieran Culkin, Danny DeVito, Greta Gerwig and a few others. The plot of this movie is a little hard to explain so I will just give a basic summary. Wiener-Dog is about a dachshund that moves from owner to owner and how she affects their lives. The movie is composed of four short stories, with only the first two having a shared location.

Wiener-Dog was an interesting experience that can be truly hard to describe without going into spoilers. The comedy throughout can be very dark and at times uncomfortably funny. I found myself often just shaking my head and laughing and wondering what is going on. In one scene the dog's first owner gives her some granola bars that cause her to have extreme diarrhea. The camera slowly pans along the side of the road just starring at the mess the dog has made. This goes on for longer than it comfortably should and you just sit there wondering when will it go away. Wiener-Dog also has this really random intermission halfway through, which seemed odd for a movie that is only 90 minutes long.

The performances in this movie are okay. I thought Greta Gerwig was enjoyable as the vet tech that takes care of the dog after getting sick from the granola bars. Danny DeVito was also good as a grumpy film school professor who no one likes and is stressed out about a script he wrote. I didn't feel like there were any stellar performances though. This may be due to the fact that I didn't really enjoy any of the characters. No one of them were very relatable and they never gave me a reason to care about their stories.

I could probably say more about Wiener-Dog, but don't want to get into all the minor details and spoilers. I will say that this movie is not for everyone and has a scene at the end that can be pretty disturbing and will upset a lot of people. If you are willing to see a movie that is a little different and at times can be pretty fun in a very dark way, then give Wiener-Dog a watch.

3 1/2 out of 5 Stars