Black Dog (2024)

A Great LITTLE Film

-- when you're feeling a little blue and want some company. For as the saying goes: misery loves company.

1. If you're interested to see Eddie all handsome and jokey and charming, either change your expectations or ditch now.

2. There's something ridiculously unique that Eddie does in this film that -- to my knowledge -- no other actor has even tried. To tell you would spoil it but a third of the way thru you'll get it.

3. The production design is stark and simple. The town this movie is set in is rather desolate and depressing. You won't be able to take your eyes off anything, which is also because the photography is perfect.

4. One of the best rock band records EVER has two or so songs featured here. An absolute perfect choice and I'm amazed they got the rights to this epic album.

5. If you put a ticking bomb in a building, we need to know if it went off or not. There's something like this in BLACK DOG and they didn't tell us what happened next. It makes me believe it's a metaphor for something, connected to our lead ditching his... urm... captivity? But granting this it's weird we're not shown the aftermath. But also kinda cool somehow.

6. Because of the recent depressingly horrid American election -- I'm feeling just like Eddie.

7. If you enjoyed the short series TO THE WONDER you'll like BLACK DOG. Just know DOG runs a little darker. And if you enjoyed this film but haven't seen WONDER, why are you still reading this?

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A Different Dog Movie

Dog movies are a bit stale these days. Man meets dog, they become attached and transform each other's lives for the better, and sometimes it ends sadly with the now-classic pre-watch question, "Does the dog die at the end?"

That's where the film's great insight comes in. It has all, or almost all, the themes and clichés of dog movies we've seen over the past few decades, regardless of the country, but the film's main story isn't about these themes.

Yes, they're there, but as a means, not an end.

These clichés catapult events that address various topics, such as life after incarceration, the consequences of past actions, social and economic changes, and ultimately the great quest that human beings pursue: purpose.

All this with a beautiful story of friendship between man and dog, a relationship so ancient and strong that it survives the modernization of times and the replacement of the old with the new.

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