User reviews

I went into this thinking it was a sequel to Welcome to the Dollhouse; I guess it technically is but it has greater concerns than letting us know what happened to Dawn and the rest of the WttD crew so adjust your expectations accordingly.

The movie is broken up into 4 parts, each part focusing on a different owner of the titular Weiner-dog.

The first part was my favorite, about a young boy struggling to understand his dog's place in the world. It is sweet and funny and I was incredibly nervous about what would become of the dog since I did not know the movie would take on a 4 chapter structure.

The second part reunites the Welcome to the Dollhouse characters Dawn and Brandon. Greta Gerwig's performance was a little strange and there were some distracting continuity issues and cutting. In fact, the entire movie had very distracting moments of editing, usually cutting back and forth from character to character for each individual line. It's very jarring, particularly because the moments without dialogue are usually portrayed in long takes.

There is an intermission, it is fantastic.

The third part is the weakest. It focuses on Dave, a screen writing professor, who is struggling to sell a script. It drags on a bit long and ends with a punchline that doesn't really have a ton of punch.

The fourth part is a bit more surreal, and feels more similar to his recent movies. It focuses on an elderly woman whose daughter comes to visit. Then takes sort of a bizarre turn in its second half.

I walked away from the movie thinking it was great but feeling terrible.

Overall, Todd Solondz continues to be one of the most interesting filmmakers out there. I feel like he's definitely making the kind of movies he wants to be making: quiet comedies reflecting our superficial, pathetic, and delirious culture packed with incredibly uncomfortable conversations and situations; I just think his previous work is more interesting.

This movie is divided into 4 parts, with the only red thread being that the wiener-dog is present in all of them.

About a bunch of pretty odd characters and initially it reminded me a bit of Wes Anderson's work but a bit more darker comedy.

The first part is pretty good with Julie Delpy (amongst others) but the second part is my favourite, with Greta Gerwig and Kieran Culkin I really wish their part was the whole movie they were so good together and I missed them greatly when their part was over. Or maybe continued with the disabled brother played by Connor Long and his girlfriend, those were also really charming.

The third part is a bit of a drag, with Danny Devito as a professor in film-school but it has it's moments even though it doesn't compare at all to the first 2 (especially the second) so the feeling is underwhelming.

The fourth part I didn't like too much either, with Ellen Burstyn and someone who plays her daughter and (douchebag) boyfriend (I don't know their names and I don't think based on their performances here are names worth remembering).

So yeah although initially the feeling was good while watching this the third and fourth act just sort of ruined the party.

If you're a dog-lover and want to watch it for that reason then perhaps this is the wrong movie to pick as the dog is rarely put in the forefront here, especially in the third and fourth act where he just pops up from time to time.

This film tells four stories that involve Wiener Dogs, their owners and the people around them.

The film has nice bright sets, and the people look seemingly bubbly enough most of the time. If you look at the screenshots, you'll be forgiven for thinking it's a comedy. However, the stories are actually rather dark and disturbing. There is a child with cancer, a drug addict whose father just died, a depressed professor and a grumpy old woman. The four stores are equally good, they are touching and convey much emotions but still manage to be individually unique. The clash of the bubbly tone and dark subject matter is very interesting. Acting is great as well, especially Danny DeVito and Ellen Burstyn.

One key element missed in this movie was there no explanation or transition from owner to owner after Greta Gerwig (the 2nd owner) takes the dog from the vets and goes on a road trip. After this the dog just appears with new owners after that. Stories, all of them were not overly interesting and the film was never funny ( marked as a comedy) and I didn't like the characters except Gerwig. Ending was distasteful. I didn't care for it much.

Seems like it's too easy to offend people nowadays.

Seriously, if at least 20 users voted 1 for this movie, it is not about director, actors, story or photography. It is more about their state of mind, and some kind of emotional instability.

First of all, this is a movie which has it's own style (moreover Todd Solondz has it's own unique style), which is simple, yet requires certain movie watching experience, and sense for slight surrealism. It was never intended to be artsy, au contraire, it mocks to 'too artsy' attitude...

All characters were intentionally made like caricatures, in order to present their flaws and shortcomings in more obvious, yet funny and sarcastic way. But don't get fooled so easily, all of them reflects real behavior, which we can observe all around us: parents who make up idiotic stories instead of simply tell the truth to their kids, lonely losers with dysfunctional families, worthless but pathologically ambitious people, shameless nerdy hipsters, damien hirst wannabees and such charming creatures...

Simply, it's highly sarcastic, anti-indie, somehow childish-style comedy, which may offend only someone who perceived it as a mirror...

Ah yes, it's called "Wiener-dog" so everyone expected a warm dog story, and they all ended up disappointed? Then watch Disney instead.

If you haven't seen anything by Todd Solondz, you have been missing out. Seriously, you have not lived until you have seen the absolutely pitch black comedies that he has directed. Classics such as "Happiness" and "Welcome to the Dollhouse" have been among my favorites for years, and no these are not films concerning happy people, or the fantasies invoked by the image of a child's toy. Todd Solondz captures a spark of the American consciousness that is both upsetting and completely ridiculous. You hope that these people are not real, that these situations do not impact the daily lives of anyone you truly love and cherish, but they absolutely do.

Solondz has been making movies for twenty years but none of them have been as immensely loved as the two I just mentioned. This particular film premiered at Sundance in January and was bought up by IFC and Amazon Studios for VOD release in April. This low key release hasn't lent to great word of mouth, but then again what are you going to say about this film that would make someone willingly watch it? Do you talk about the section where Danny DeVito plays a defeated and morose screen writing professor? The first section that shows the acquisition of the wiener dog and its subsequent sickness via the ingestion of chocolate? (And all the mess that entails) What you should tell people is that it's atmospheric, moody, and self- assured in its stark representations of down and out losers.

Solondz films don't show winners. They show people who deserve far worse than they're getting, or people who are so devastatingly wrong in every aspect of their lives that it's embarrassing to watch them just live them. The characters he chose for this film are each unique in a very different way. Julie Delpy's soft spoken mother consistency tries to break bad news to her child about the facts of life by overtly lying to his face. Terrible, inscrutable words form on her lips and flow out of her in a delivery style that is so blunt that it physically hurts.

Honestly, if you like weird, this is going to be your favorite film of the year. While it doesn't exaggerate its mood with grand effects or strange settings, it's a film that tells the little person's tale. Grandmothers sometimes don't connect with their offspring. Parents sometimes can't trust their children. Making a spontaneous decision can change big aspects of your life. These are the themes that Solondz focuses on to great effect, and though these are small spaces, they produce a grand film.

I know complaining about a movie being depressing often sounds like you just don't get the movie or you are more inclined towards movies with more conventional endings. But with this film it is simply depressing for the sake of being depressing. And it is depressing with this unattached quality where you don't even feel anything towards the subject matter, just "oh that's messed up and depressing". It is eyeroll inducing and feels like it is insulting your intelligence.

This is a movie that thinks it is smart but still resorts to gross out poop jokes as a means to grind in disturbing imagery.

To me this is the worst kind of indie film. It is one that thinks it is a lot smarter than it is. Or it thinks it is saying something complex when really it boils down to truths about life we are all aware of. It takes things to extremes for the sake of it without realizing why other movies push things there. It tries to be dark comedy without the intelligence, which just makes it feel cruel. If you want a smart film watch The Lobster.

Todd Solondz makes interesting movies about odd, unattractive people, the people you're trying not to be, while most of other movies Focus on idealized people. I found this hist most entertaining movie so far, which might be either because he has become lighter and funnier, or because this was the first time I saw one of his movies on the big screen. In general I'd say that I find his films are more suited to a proper cinema because it makes it easier to admire his perfectionist visual style and to sit through the movie, which is not always easy.

Solondz follows an art for the sake of art approach that is oddly entertaining and fascinating. You don't get to see this stuff anywhere else. On the other hand, you don't come away with great moral lessons or anything. But then I don't want movies with moral lessons. I tend to get them from my mum already.

Wiener Dog is a set of four short films about four completely different people (a young boy, a young woman, an aging professor and an old Lady) connected only by the successive ownership of a small dog.

It suits Solondz's approach that he doesn't get to dwell on each person for overly long.

There is a scene in (Danny DeVito) Dave Schmerz's office which shows a movie poster for Dave Schmerz's "Apricots". The poster is clearly based on Woody Allen's "Bananas".

There were lots of little things like this in this movie, just thrown in there but not brought explicitly to your attention.

One of the reasons I appreciate Solondz.

I found this movie very enjoyable and satisfying. It is, though rather subtle about it, a comedy... though many plainly fail to see that. Frankly, I expected something more dry and dark. I ended up feeling really glad I had gone.

Many small things to notice and appreciate, and some very good acting all around. Some genuinely poignant moments sprinkled throughout. There were also a few little digs at recent films... twice a shot of the boy reclining which recalled "Boyhood", and the 'Intermission' plainly mocks "The Hateful Eight"

You probably have to 'get' Solondz, and know what to expect. DO NOT go in expecting a wacky pic about a kooky pup. But if you do get his stuff, I say this is his best since "Happiness"

The premise for this film is amazing. Audience gets to see the life of a dog, as it is passed from owner to owner, and the lives and turmoils of each of this dog's owners. But the film fails, in many respects. It lacks excitement. It lacks good drama. Some of the bits are very good, but overall I was disappointed.

An adorable wiener-dog changes owners, impacting these four different miserable and frequently humiliated people, each with terrible personal judgment, who clearly can't take responsibility for her. Remi is a lonely 7-year-old cancer-survivor. He once calmly mentions to his mother "we're all going to die". Dawn, though now an adult, remains naive, and reacting far too positively to Brandon. Gerwig does, some of the time, evoke Matarazzo's spot-on performance. Dave is a middle-aged struggling screenwriter who teaches film school, facing students who are particularly painful to endure. And the elderly Nana is kept company by little other than her regrets.

The director's pitch black humor stays strong. We meet more people who definitely shouldn't be taking care of kids, and children who are comprised entirely of depression. One mother describes cremation as "sort of like... being put in an oven". The acting is all good. This is incredibly quotable, why is there only the "heel" one on the page? The fake intermission gave me cramps from laughing. How have DeVito and Todd not worked together before this? The only of his films I haven't watched now is Dark Horse. I love them all(this very much included), though I admit they aren't all equally good(this is one of the "not the best" ones. But I'm ecstatic that I watched it). I watched this as soon as I could, it's available for free streaming on my library's website. It never hit my cinema, an indie and all.

The trailer tells you it's hilarious, in that dark way he does: if you watch that, you should have a fair idea of what to expect. Note that a lot of the negative reviews are from people who saw the title, and nothing else about it, and expected it to be heartwarming, rather than, y'know, soul-rending. Storytelling has problems from pacing as it's about such different people and stories; Happiness, the people have stuff in common. This fares pretty well. More exploration of "the h*** of suburbia", and the misery of middle America. The running time is 81 minutes without credits, or 84 with.

Yes, the ending is shocking. But if you don't think there was a reason for that...then your mind is not twisted enough for Solondz' work. I recommend this to any fan of his. 7/10

It's really a good movie. I can't stop watching it twice at a time. You can find both you,your family,your friends,your neighbor, all of us,in it. It's actually 4 dogs in 4 different stories,which I thought to be 1 dog the first time I watched it. Maybe the only thing characters sharing in common is that they all raise a wiener dog. Its name is wiener-dog, but has not so much to do with it, dog is not main character. People all have their problems, towards living and death.In this movie it shows to us.Maybe you have parents less responsibility; maybe you are losing hope to life,and miss nothing in your place; maybe you're suffering from your career-used to be successful but now nothing; maybe you're facing life ends. It shows us stories in dramatic way, kind of interesting,and also sarcastic. Many scenes impressed me a lot, quite interesting. It's a movie for people who go through life or have their own life thoughts. There is no happy ending, but you won't feel too bad maybe.It's really good.

As i watched this movie i had a few good laughs.. but in the end, i failed to get the point. If there was one.. the acting is stiff and artificial, which by all means may have been intended, but not to my liking. The interconnected stories didn't connect at all which made the plot impressively uninteresting. Was it even the same dog pictured throughout the movie? Who knows... the humor is quirky, dark and bizarre, I can give credit for that, but there is no story.. Half way through I started yawning and towards the end of the movie I longed for it to end. Even so I rate this movie with a 6, since it was actually funny, when you managed to look past the pointlessness of it all.

"Wiener-Dog" (2016 release; 90 min.) brings the story of a wiener-dog as she is passed on from caretaker to caretaker. As the movie opens, we see someone drop off Wiener-Dog at the shelter, and in the very next scene, a dad surprises his young son, a cancer survivor we are told, with the gift he's always dreamt of: having his very own pet. Unfortunately, the dog must first be house-broken and that is easier said than done, to the desperation of both the young boy and his parents. Then one day, the boy feeds granola bars to the dog, upsetting the dog's stomach... At this time we're not even 15 minutes into the movie but to tell you more would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.

Couple of comments: this is the latest project from independent writer-director Todd Solndz ("Welcome to the Dollhouse", "Dark Horse"). Here he bring perhaps his most accessible story yet: how a cute-looking, just plain adorable, wiener-dog goes from household to household, where we get a glimpse of those people's lives. There are essentially 4 unrelated stories with Wiener-Dog as the common thread. The movie is helped immensely by, of course, the cute looking dog, but equally so by a number of stellar acting performances. In the first story, the young boy reminded me of Fred Savage, Wonder Years-era. Julie Delpy plays his mom. In the second segment, Greta Gerwig thankfully stays MILES away from her usual Diane Keaton-like NY young neurotic woman, and instead gives a wonderful turn as the seemingly lost young woman. Gerwig plays it with a vulnerability not previously seen from here. In the third segment Danny DeVito plays the lead, while in the last segment, Ellen Burstyn reminds us why she still has the acting chops. I must admit that I knew next-to-nothing about the film prior to seeing it (other than it featured a really cute dog), and I was very pleasantly surprised by it. It is billed as a 'comedy', but frankly, I don't think it was a comedy at all (there certainly aren't any laugh-out-loud moments in it). Instead it is a peek at ordinary people's lives, including their struggles and insecurities. And how many movies have you seen lately where there is an actual (if short) intermission? Yes, indeed!

"Wiener-Dog" premiered at this year's Sundance Film Festival to great acclaim, and Amazon Studies (yes, them again) snapped it up right away. The movie opened this weekend at my local art-house theater here in Cincinnati, and I couldn't wit to see it. The Friday early evening screening was attended so-so, and I can only hope that this had to due with the picture-perfect weather we are enjoying here today. If you are interested in a slightly off-center movie about ordinary people's lives, including having a cute dog, I'd suggest you check this out, be it in the theater or on Amazon Instant Video (simultaneous release), or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray. "Wiener-Dog" is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

When I saw the cast I just had to see this. And after I saw it was directed by Todd Solondz and it was another reason to add this to the watchlist.

This is filled with "what ifs" and "then whats" and this is a very relevant tool for scriptwriting because it applies perfectly to life as well. What if choose to stay in today? Then I will watch movies the rest of the day. Every action has a reaction. Even if some are too young and stubborn to see it. We were all rebels when we were young, never forget it.

It is an acquired taste this one, for sure. It's because these vignettes go by too fast and you are not allowed to connect with the characters but just to connect with the moments they live while this wiener-dog is in their life.

But I gotta say, I don't want to kill myself after watching what this dog watched.