So where did the dog in the film come from? “I don’t know,” Solondz says, dreamily. “It’s a cute little dog, the dachshund, and that cuteness was attractive for my purposes. The movie is not really about the dog, its trials and triumphs: that would be Lassie. This dog is more a filter through which I explore things like mortality.”
This is one of saddest films I’ve seen in recent years. Damn, I got it all in one sitting in the dark. The full package. A hard one for me having lost my dog not too long ago. You very well do know the word heartbreaking. It’s not too easily used, cause too many things are exactly that: heartbreaking. Like this movie. For a film (as being something that is set up) it is extremely heartbreaking. You want to shake some of these people on the screen, make their bones rattling. But you can’t! You’re watching – petrified, smiling, hoping (and believe me, for the most, hoping in vain!) – everything going into pieces, falling apart, being squashed. There is a sense of humour from time to time that makes this little masterpiece by Todd Solondz even more subversive. I think of all the people who may buy this DVD with a look at the cover only – oh, I’m so sorry for their loss of entertainment! You may want to, but you will never forget this movie. Amongst other things, you will see & hear a fucking funny song, in the middle of it, out of nowhere, and an utterly melancholic one. Before that one is sung by a child, you see three Mexicans in the back of a car: „In America … so lonely and sad and depressing … like a big fat elephant drowning in a sea of despair.“ They prefer their well-known Mexican sadness. Don’t be afraid, Mr. Scumbag will raise the wall high.