The man most famous for the darkly funny dysfunction of Welcome to the Dollhouse and even more dark, less funny characterizations of Happiness, Todd Solondz, has made several films since the latter bowed to extreme controversy in '98, but he's still pretty much known as the guy whose movies show you people you feel very glad not to be. Not that his post-Happiness flicks have completely abandoned that particular trademark, but Solondz has arguably softened his touch when it comes to unlikable characters; existentially absurd and at times laugh-out-loud funny, Wiener-Dog continues the trend, but by no means abandons the director's deadpan austerity and awkward, telling silences in favor of a more mainstream vibe.
The film shows us four vignettes, tied together by the presence of the titular canine (who's named, at various times, Poop, Cancer and, uh, Wiener Dog). She's first brought home as a gift for the young son of a terrible, bitter couple who have trouble expressing their love for him in any other way. After several incidents that prove a dog is harder to take care of than, say, a My Little Pony, and what can only be described as a diarrhea explosion, the father takes the dachshund to be put to sleep; she's instead rescued by a lonely, socially awkward vet tech named Dawn (played extremely effectively by Greta Gerwig). Following a chance convenience-store encounter, Dawn and Poop join a former high-school bad-boy crush turned loser junkie (Kieran Culkin) on a road trip to inform his brother of some tragic family news.
Neither of these storylines can be said to reach a true conclusion — though the second one inches closer to one — and both are left behind as the movie is interrupted by an honest-to-god intermission, complete with musical number and pitch for lobby snacks.
After the intermission (and, presumably, the procurement of lobby snacks), we find the eponymous pet in the possession of seriously depressed failed screenwriter and film school instructor Dave Schmerz, embodied to perfection by Danny DeVito in a brief but award-worthy performance. Dave's sense of futility quickly reaches critical mass, and the dog becomes a literal symbol of his inner turmoil before this plot very nearly runs its complete course, and we're suddenly in the life of an elderly woman (Ellen Burstyn) who's taking some time out from wasting away in her retirement villa to endure a visit from her self-esteem-less granddaughter and a reprehensible "artist" boyfriend.
Solondz seems almost deliberately obtuse about the themes that connect these stories and lives — is it mortality? It's telling that each vignette moves progressively further toward a true ending, with the film finally finding one — and gets as much emotional mileage out of his exterior backgrounds and interior color palettes as he does out of the actors' largely understated performances; many of these people are pathetic, but they ring true, never coming off as caricatures. Their tense interactions provide as many comic moments as the, you know, comic moments, and if the goal is to get us wondering what else there is to know about them, then Wiener-Dog succeeds. It's the kind of challenging movie that may be tough to love, but that stays in the mind and inspires conversation nonetheless.
3.5 out of 5 stars
Rated R. Written and directed by Todd Solondz.
Starring Julie Delpy, Kieran Culkin, Danny DeVito, Ellen Burstyn,
Greta Gerwig, Keaton Nigel Cooke, Tracy Letts.
Now playing in limited release.
This article appears in Aug 11-18, 2016.