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Dogtooth (2009)

Director: Yorgos Lanthimos

Time Out rating

Average user rating

27 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

‘I hope your kids have bad influences and develop bad personalities,’ says the well-to-do dad of three suburban young adults as a putdown in the mysterious, bold ‘Dogtooth’, hinting at a unique approach to parenting of which Josef Fritzl would be proud. Director Giorgos Lanthimos gives us a middle-class Greek family, lorded over by a businessman father who keeps his three children within the walls of their smart home and teaches them the incorrect definitions of several new words each day (‘A motorway is a very strong wind’). These kids’ world is without outside interference: when their mother talks on the phone, they think she’s speaking to herself; when planes fly over, they think they’re toys. Perhaps the dad’s biggest mistake is to allow a security guard from work to enter their home and sexually satisfy his son. He doesn’t bargain on her trading gifts and ideas with his daughter for sexual favours. Nor does he pre-empt the danger of her lending his daughter videos of ‘Rocky’ and ‘Flashdance’.

With hints of Haneke’s ‘The Seventh Continent’, Ian McEwan’s ‘The Cement Garden’ and even ‘Lord of the Flies’, Lanthimos has crafted a stunningly provocative and at times witty play on the inspirations that make us who we are. All families live by their own rules, and this drama takes that idea to its perverse and shocking conclusion. Lanthimos films these calamities in a quiet, observational style, with calm colours, subtle camera movements and gentle edits, lending an air of normality to a world that couldn’t be less so. Special and troubling.

Author: Dave Calhoun

Time Out London Issue 2070: April 22-28, 2010

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User reviews of this film

Garth said...

Posted on Oct 11 2011 01:49 what kind of ending do you need - 'Eldest' makes it to a dentist, in an airport, where Christina's found a new security job and they hook up?! no, in my opinion, not knowing how it pans out provokes the viewer to ask themself some awkward questions!
best bit - the rocky re-enactment of Rocky; worst bit - poor stray cat.

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Mike said...

Posted on Jun 10 2011 01:26 Darkly funny and original.

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dorayakii said...

Posted on May 10 2011 03:25 This film is like Marmite. You either love it or hate it, there's NO inbetween.
I LOVED it. One of the best films I've seen this year... every last detail of the film was meticulously planned, and showed it ostentatiously, but usually that is the sign of a bad director, but in this case it just added to the feeling of claustrophobia and authoritarianism.
If you watch this film hoping for fast pace action, forget it. The film's storyline may be slow, but leaves you no time to think about and analyse the deeper meaning of the film.
If you hope for a justification or an underlying reason why the father keeps them under control you've missed the point completely.
You should realise that the film is not ultimately about the family, the family members are merely symbols so they can be one-dimensional and there doesn't need to be a reason or a justification of the father's keeping them locked away. It is an allegory of pure control, pure mindless, reasonless control for its own sake. The ending is deliberately ambiguous again for that same reason. The different facets of control and emancipation from that control are so complex that a definitive ending would not only be superfluous but spoil the entire film.
The film allegorised not just political totalitarianism of the 1984 type, like North Korea but it was also a parody of religious cults such as Hare Krishna, Philadelphia Church of God, Scientologists, Kabbalah, Mormons or the Jehovah's Witnesses who keep their members in the dark about the world, shun outside influences, have their own vocabulary where they change the definitions of words and even indoctrinate their members to police themselves and their own feelings. The acting was stiff, which again was totally appropriate and fitting for the film.
I was able to connect every last detail of the film to a particular exprience in the cult that I was raised in and the main message I got from the film was the futility of totalitarian or cultic regimes and the fact that intelligent people's minds will always long to break free of control no matter how indoctrinated they are.
If you've ever been a cult member, or a citizen of a totalitarian regime, this film will speak to you.

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dorayakii said...

Posted on May 10 2011 03:12 If you watch this film and say "what was that about?" or if you watch it hoping for an explanation of why the father goes to such lengths or a resolution of what happens to the older girl in the end, you've been spoon-fed by too many Hollywood movie and need to clear out your entire DVD collection, open a book and start re-training your indolent brain and sparking your lethargic imagination. An explanation or resolution would have spoilt the entire film and rendered the core message impotent.

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Steve said...

Posted on Apr 24 2011 13:20 This movie is slow and boring. There are some scenes that might shock or invoke humour, but ultimatly the plot remains pointless, questionable and unbelivable. Many veiwers will not relate to the characters and will question their motives. Annoyingly, no answers are given away in this film, leaving the veiwer to self interpret the point of this film. It remains a bizzare story that leaves the veiwer confused. The story is supposed to be more humorous than it really is, the creators of this film may have missed the mark and ended up with a disturbing contraversial peice that disapoints.

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Jake said...

Posted on Mar 31 2011 07:25 I just watched this movie and so far can't think of any movie to compare it to, not that it was amazing or outstanding just that I haven't seen one like it. It was very original and had me wondering how it was going to turn out the whole time. The trunk ending gave me a chuckle which I thought was a perfect way to end such a serious film.

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Nicolas Protonotarios said...

Posted on Mar 18 2011 00:19 A thoroughly disgusting film to watch -as entertainment goes- but also supremely effective as a psychological detonator. The oft-touted black humour is not really its forte -we have seen much better- but the acting and camera work by director Lanthimos are spot on. The father figure especially is scaringly plausible and his choice of tools for punishment -the same means that 'polluted' his family- as well as his abrupt and chillingly effective moves are, I believe, the best part of the movie. The main failing is I think the sudden and vague ending, which, although open to many interpretations, could have carried the scenario on for another few minutes with better results. The film it brought more to my mind, unlike other reviews I have come across, is One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, with its whitish, light colours and chillingly cold atmosphere.
Definitely a must for anyone interested in quality movie-making.

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S said...

Posted on Mar 06 2011 18:35 I am confused whether or not I recommend this movie. It was perhaps the most unsettling movie I have ever seen. But what made it horrific, is why this gem is so original. My Greek partner says this movie is a parody of "over-protective" Greek parents. The ending does leave more questions than answers, but that further adds to the disturbed feeling I had throughout the entire film. After the movie, I felt like I lost my innocence. I felt unsettled, like I needed to take an anti-acid pill, and have a drink all at the same time. The day after, I had a better appreciation for the uniqueness of this movie, and especially admire the originality of the dance scene of the two sisters. Flashdance parody was brilliant. Love it.

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BigMoeMiami said...

Posted on Feb 22 2011 19:30 This movie is funny, stark, entertaining and entirely plausible. Cases in which children have been isolated from the outside world and mentally manipulated abound. The father is your basic psycopath who has somehow convinced the mother that this bizarre child rearing arrangement is to the entire family's benefit due to the negative influences of the outside world. She has somehow agreed to play along but part of the mastery of Lanthimos' work is the subtlety with which he shows how this set up is starting to cause emotional strain both with the mother who is starting to have serious doubts and the eldest daughter who senses there is something very wrong. The canine references point to the fact that the father wishes to exert complete and utter control over his family much as one does with a pet.

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Aaron said...

Posted on Feb 16 2011 06:33 I don't see how anyone could possibly think this was a bad film.Either the dad or both parents are blatant, textbook psychopaths. The authoritarian and well meant behavior by the misbehaving father and complicit mother made that rather obvious. The children are in a perpetual state of arrested development until one child is corrupted by an outsider (christina). So in her hunger for knowledge the girl smashes out her dogtooth so she can find out what the real world is like. The ending seems abrupt but that doesnt make it bad. It lets the viewer ponder on the thought "what happens next". I was also reminded of the white ribbon. I thought this film was also an allegory on authoritarianism as was The White Ribbon. Fantastic film. You just have to think to get it.

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james said...

Posted on Feb 09 2011 19:50 One of the best films I have ever seen

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Tamarisk said...

Posted on Jun 06 2010 15:57 Not enjoyable to watch, but i like many a film that is far more painful. I too only sat it out in the hope more would be revealed. Boring. Unoriginal.

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bengubbins said...

Posted on May 27 2010 13:37 Film of the year! Best trip at cinema for ages. Brilliantly paced narrative and hilariously disturbed reality.
Ending left me wanting more as I could have happily watched the scenario unravel for ages. Not sure why it's being questioned, its ambiguity allows the viewer to interpret. This is a good thing! Likewise there were only hints at a backstory. Are answers needed for everything?
Flashdance? Videos the eldest watched were Rocky and Jaws,no? Both reenactments had me cracking up. Whilst brutal, the father's choice of punishment for eldest and Christina was awesome. Great writing!
Also, like how the family characters are only named as their roles (father etc...), similar device in Saramago's Blindness. And I love the minimal film poster:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a8/Dogtooth(2009)_poster.jpg
Apt mention of Josef Fritzl in the review, I was wondering if those horrors had influenced the screenplay. Since Dogtooth had a May 2009 release, presumably it was already written/conceived before Fritzl case came to light.
Finally, anyone seen Kinetta? As good? And thanks for Giorgos Lanthimos Q+A elsewhere on the site.

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Paris Tselios said...

Posted on May 10 2010 08:44 Anyone who has seen Haneke's 'trilogy' The Seventh Continent, Benny's Video and 71 Fragments of A Chronology of Chance as well as anything by the master David Lynch and the laughably self-important Lars Von Trier will find this film utterly derivative, desperately self-conscious and quite frankly a huge bore. The script is risible and clumsy (paticularly for Greek speakers like myself ) the acting plain hysterical and the camera work desperately but unsuccessfully trying to emulate a sense of unease . The 'surreal' scene where the children perform for the parents is one of the worst set pieces I have ever encountered in a movie. I did not consider this film an homage to Haneke, Lynch, Trier or the long tradition of the theatre of the absurd, rather an insult to my intellect and a very, very poor imitation. 'Un Certain Regard'? Un certain retard more like...

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RCO'G said...

Posted on May 07 2010 18:25 Mary Tsoni's ( Youngest ) day job is as lead singer of the Greek Punk Band Mary and the Boy and without even knowing that you watch her along with the rest of the cast keenly aware that this could erupt in an angry angry volatile outburst of violence swearing social commentary and general anarchy and yet it never does. And that's the fascination of the piece. It plays as "normal" so that by the end ( I wanted a bit more ) the audience is left ambigiously unsure whether to laugh cry be happy or go tell someone. It's Directed with spot on precision by Lanthimos who uses every trick in the Indie book and Importantly one's that aren't there, such as moving to the slow dolly track on the "Jaws" re-enactment to create obscurity, vagueness and downright weirdness which rather thanm alienating the audience keeps our attention. The cast is superb and David Lynch needs to see this movie.

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