Dogman

Bullying. How do we deal with bullies? This is the main ingredient in this Italian drama. What is the easiest way out when someone is bullying? It is this choice that the main character here is in. The film's main character is in this dilemma, and we follow the discomfort that develops. If you can not solve the problem, is it possible to live with it? The choice the main character here makes is difficult to understand, but still understandable. This makes the film engaging, but it is demanding to watch. We suspect that this will come to a final clarification. And that it will not be pretty. I liked Dogman. Good script, relevant and good acting. But I struggled to understand why the main character made the choices he made. Maybe others interpret it differently?

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?

Marcello Fonte is superb as the nuanced, buscemi-ish underdog carrying the literally back-breaking burden of loyalty and friendship in this darkly comic, violent tale of the quest for respect. Sublime photography and production design here but I was left hoping for a little more sweeter justice at the end.

Marcello is a timid, weak-minded dog groomer in a lower class neighborhood. He's a loving father and a dog lover. He deals coke to volatile brute Simoncino who terrorizes the neighborhood and never pays for anything. He gets pushed into joining Simoncino in his crime sprees. The situation spirals out of control as Simoncino's relentless brutality is matched only by Marcello's meekness.

Marcello's pathetic nature is a bit frustrating at first. His character becomes very compelling as he gets more complex. He is like a dog mistreated by his violent master. He shows his humanity and his soft nature but he is moulded by his handler. There is a magnetism to his meekness. They are all very compelling characters. Despite his flaws and the inevitable tragedy, one hopes for the best. It's a brilliant character study.

It's very understandable that so many reviewers of this film make a statement that they can't recommend this film to anyone. It's almost an orgy of sado-masochism, where a little humble man with a daughter making his living on taking care of dogs is harassed by the supreme local bully, who terrorizes the entire district, an almost surrealistic desolation of a human slum district in the Naples area, that just couldn't be more dreary. He tries in vain to compromise with the bully by serving him, which he never should have done in the first place, because it only worsens the trouble. The final settlement is a grotesque monstrosity of a disposal vying with the most atrocious finales of Visconti in explicit realism. The case of Marcello is and will always remain a puzzle, why did he at all try to compromise with such an obvious criminal maniac, you just don't compromise with terrorists, which will only eventually turn you one of them. The film is horribly realistic all the way, and it's difficult to see that anything good could come out of it, and we never learn what trials Marcello will encounter next.