User reviews

The first part deftly blends comedy with drama;director/actor Attal uses a classic comic situation for something it was not meant for: the (very big) dog settles down in a bourgeois house and the family cannot get rid of this burdensome animal ; but dad ,a writer who has been suffering from cramp for years , is fed up with his depressed wife (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and his restless offspring : three boys and a girl ;the dog becomes his true mate ,he calls him "Stupid" (in the title ,it's really a proper noun).There's a lot of humor ,as this dog has a tendency to sexually assault the male persons;although Attal uses and abuses the voice over to tell us how he feels nostagic for his days in Rome ,where he was able to let his inspiration flow, but it was before he was a family man,the movie survives the intellectual intentions .

With a few exceptions,the second part is preachy,edifying ,sophomoric and dull ,as tedious as Miss Gainsbourg's lecture on Musset' "Lorenzaccio" ; the story becomes predictable , implausible (the essays ), and " you -shall- be- a- man ,my son " in the grand tradition of Kipling; all the lines between the born again writer and his editor have been heard at least a hundred times or more by the average viewer: it's the last line , thanks one more time to this good old dog ,which saves it from the pure cliché .It's also the presence of the pet which saves the improbable scene between the professor and the writer .The story drags on and on , with a little help from the music ,a lovely variation on Lennon/McCartney's "and I love her"in the last sequences,nicely filmed .

Dedicated to director Claude Berri.

I have to admit the beginning, well after the initial voice over, so the beginning as in the first real scene in the house, is quite something. Great dialog, super funny and it feels quite light. But as with life in general it does not stay that way. And by that I don't just mean the dialog but the mood and lightness the movie had at first - or seemed to have.

The acting is superb and the script/dialog throughout is quite something to behold. The relationships seem as realistic depicted as they can be. Even if you don't agree with one of the characters the motivations for their actions are clear cut. They all make sense. And in between all of them ... a dog. You might love that or hate it (I know one person who is not impressed with pets or animals at all - so no winning over for her) ... and that is before thinking about all the drama that lies within the movie

Yvan Attal did a good job with this one, both as the director and as an actor. Charlotte Gainsbourg made me realize I'm getting old. Having known her since being the little daughter of Serge Gainsbourg to a mature good actress, many years passed by since then. Mon Chien Stupide (or My Dog Stupid for the English title) is a good dramady, easy to watch, and entertaining enough, certainly for this genre. Melancholy, difficult parenthood, existential life answers and questions, and a dog, those are the ingredients. The acting was good and that from the whole cast, even the big Mastiff. Good cinematography too, a movie with nothing really bad to write about. Don't expect anything fast paced though, it's mostly conversations between family members, the daily family arguments, but it's sometimes emotional and recognizable. Worth a watch.

If you enjoy French family drama (isn't there always?) , you'll enjoy this movie based on a novella ( My Dog Stupid) by American writer John Fante.

Far from being a comedy except for the antics of Stupide, a huge grey Neapolitan Mastiff.

The actor Yvan Attal plays an award winning writer with writer's block. And of course since it's French there is a long suffering wife played by Charlotte Gainsbourg.

Still an enjoyable movie if only because of the dog, Stupide.

This is an average movie, script is not so interesting..a one time watchable movie. artistes are average also and at certain time the movie seems boring, and not entertaining at all.

I enjoyed this movie, but I do think it is geared toward middle age or older adults. There are some light hearted moments and a few moments that made me laugh a little. The scenes with the dog were good. I wouldn't truly call it a comedy and the drama wasn't too heavy(it didn't make me cry, cringe or cheer). I can see how some viewers found it boring, but I could understand where all the characters were coming from, and I also enjoyed a lot of the dialogue which made me enjoy the movie.

Also it's not a comedy. Not in a sense you would think. You are better off googling "funny dog videos" and watching like 10 minutes of that kind of content on youtube or facebook. That contains so much more fun than this almost 2 hours of dumpsterfire. The doggo is cute and that's it. The point is: the plot has NOTHING TO DO WITH THE DOG. What actually happens is that the family tries to gaslight the writer into thinking that he ruined everything with the dog. You could make the same movie without a dog ever appearing. This is unacceptable in my opinion. Like seriously. The title is dog. The cover is dog. And the trailer alone already contains like half of the dog's screentime. So yeah. If you are here for the dog, leave now. If you are here for fun, good laughs and smile on your face, leave now. You won't be impressed.

Wonderful and endearing black comedy. Great movie to watch with young adults. Very well directed by actor/director Yvan Attal. Wife and superb actress Charlotte Gainsbourg does a great job too. Just a great example of life, family and enduring through it.

Excellent film. Completely different from what I expected. Maybe hit too close to home. I was thinking comedy. It had very funny moments, but the overall film, was real life. Family. Expectations. Disappointments. Love.

If you like french movies, you will like this one. It has a smart and funny dialog, mainly by the actor/director Yvan Attal. His wife (in the movie and in real life), actress Charlotte Gainsbourg, is a bit overly dramatic at the beginning but plays well the rest of the movie. The story in not plausible (a dog that settle at their home and likes to hump guys), but it did not bother me. The story is not original - a writer that has a writer's block and writes about his current situation; still, it interesting, how each chapter is about one of their kids or other family issues the writer experiences. The movie is a bit too long, feels a bit slow in the middle, but then, gets back on track. Good acting; good cinematography; good direction = an enjoyable movie.

This movie made me L. O. L. And that's RARE! The interactions between 'Stupid' and the family members should strike a chord w all animal lovers.

Enjoy!

After 1800 votes, I wanted to write a review for a movie. This French film had perfect lines and many funny moments. Especially if you are married, I recommend it. Have fun.

The film is very successful emotions feelings face reality

Excellent, as it depicts reality at it's finest.

It's what we are we as men, and it's how everything around us might fall apart cause we cope with our existence by makin fun of it, f ckin around, cause not much or not many get us, and it's not our nature to complain, give up or give in. Even if it seems so on the outside, even if all seem lost, we keep pushing, walking, crawling forward with close to no expectations. It s only natural. We built that way and if we don't betray our nature, that's what we do. And this minding all of the characters. None of them are portrayed poorly and go together like bread and butter even if it may not seem so. Cause such is life.

Highly recommend, but not for kids or immature people, this ain't your average comedy, even if it might seem so, it's far from.

It's a 10 movie for it's kind .

Some of the other reviews went out of the way to talk about how French the story is. In fact, it is adapted from a story by John Fante, about as American a writer as ever there was: the square outside the LA Public Library is named for him, and some of the 1950s 'beat' writers acknowledge his influence. That the adaptation seems so modern and appropriate to its location is a real testament to the skill of the director and other writers.

The acting is superb, the setting perfect and beautiful, and the story will resonate with anyone who has ever had a brush with midlife angst. Funny enough to not be depressing, dark enough to not be just fluff, and the puppy is cute.

It was a risky move to watch a French movie on a Friday night after dinner as the risk of dozing off was very high if the movie sucks in any way. My better half and I didn't expect much and were ready to stop watching it if it started to suck in any way big or small. There are so many things to watch or read, so no time to waste on subpar movies. We ended up loving My dog Stupid a lot and was engaged by the storytelling. I think tragicomedy is a good way to call the movie.

Won't spoil the movie plots for you but say that the movie is based on a short story/novella by American novelist John Fante (side note: Charles Bukowski loved him and kinda rediscovered him) published posthumously that drew lots of inspiration from his own life. A novella reviewer wrote that Fante showed _a great sense of self-mockery and self-evaluation_ in the novella and I would add the movie showed us the same.

I feel this movie got an unfair 6.2 average rating so I gave it a 10. Mind you, I don't often took the effort to find review of book/short story/novella of which a movie is based from. Just to learn more about the movie itself. So I do love the movie. A 10 movie.