No, this isn’t the movie poster, but I thought it would be a funny intro. Dogtooth takes us into the lives of a family who have kept their children hidden from society’s evils. They’re home schooled, play childish games and have childlike demeanors, are highly impressionable and somewhat oblivious, clearly dysfunctional, and harshly disciplined for their shortcomings. The parents do a lot to manipulate their kids thoughts, like what is, really isn’t, and make up stories to keep them at bay.
Christina, a security guard at the father’s work, is introduced into the mix in order to satisfy the son’s sexual needs. She’s blindfolded on the car ride to and fro, does the deed, mingles with the family for a bit, is paid for her time, and repeats the process on another day. Well, when the son fails to satisfy her needs, she takes things into her own hands, or should I say crotch, and bargains with the older sister. How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Tootsie Pop (in return for a sparkly headband)? Only Christina knows, but this prompts the older sister to start bargaining with her younger one (licks for treats). Christina’s devilish ways not only brings curiosity, but ultimately crushes their entire world.
A few horror elements come into play too. The older sister bites her brother’s arm and then later knifes it, all over a toy airplane. The son takes a pair of hedge clippers and kills a stray cat in the backyard. The older sister gets bashed over the head for watching porno, Christina gets bashed with a VCR, and the older sister bashes her dogtooth out with a hand weight. There's lots of bashing going on here! Incest plays out too (the parent's idea), since Christina is no longer welcome, but the son still has his carnal needs.
I could give a play-by-play of how this film unfolds, and may have given too much away already, but Dogtooth has to be watched in order to be understood. Sure, it may confuse and disgust some feeble viewers, and similarities to Blast from the Past and The Village may be recognized, but it’s my (early) pick as one of the best movies of 2011 (even though it was filmed in 2009). It has the shock value of Kids, Gummo, and Ken Park, yet allows a sense of compassion, as the kids are merely puppets of their masters (their parents).
A scene I found humorous is when the younger sister is cutting off her Barbie doll's feet with scissors, and she screams every time she does it. There’s just a sense of childishness we can all relate to, and an innocence we may have lost due to growing up. Much like a pussy is a big light, and a zombie is a small, yellow flower (these are the definitions given by the mother), maybe our adolescent minds have come to learn too much, thus making life way too complicated. Oh, the obliviousness of these kids if they're ever released into the real world...
This is a great movie, and a great feature for the new year. Another movie on my radar is Enter the Void by Gaspar Noe, the man behind Irreversible and I Stand Alone, which are highly recommended, and highly controversial. When I look at people’s “most extreme cinema” lists, these two titles are almost always on there, and that's my kind of cinema, so I have big hopes for his new flick! If you like these, you should like Dogtooth, but either way, it's not one that's easily forgotten.
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