BRWC At #LFF: Dogman – Review

21st October 2018

Italian filmmaker Matteo Garrone, the director of ‘Gomorrah’ and ‘Tale of Tales’, returns with his new crime drama ‘Dogman’, a film about a young dog-groomer named Marcello, living in a bad neighbourhood in Rome.

Marcello is a gentle and kind-hearted father, desperate to be respected and liked by his neighbours, and to earn an honest wage. His troubles come when he befriends Simoncino, an extremely violent and unhinged man terrorising the people of the area. Marcello finds himself mixed up in all of Simoncino’s criminal activities, putting his reputation and livelihood at risk.

This is a film that rests largely on the shoulders of its main actor, Marcello Fonte. His performance may very well be one of the finest of the year. Fonte’s expressive face helps deliver an extremely charismatic yet raw performance that remains wholeheartedly human. Marcello feels like a real person at all times, brought to life by an actor able to bring the audience into the story with great skill. He’s incredibly watchable.

The film isn’t necessarily an easy watch. It starts off relatively light-hearted, with a healthy mix of black comedy thrown in for good measure, but the experience gets increasingly gruelling as the story develops. Garrone holds nothing back, and at times it can be quite taxing, but for the most part the tone is very well-balanced.

There is no denying that the film has its silly or slightly misjudged moments, wherein it perhaps takes things a little too far one way or the other. At times, the line between humour and drama isn’t necessarily well-drawn, but this isn’t a regular occurrence and it certainly doesn’t detract away from the many things that the film gets right. For the most part, the balance is well-judged and tonally consistent, aided by perfect pacing and terrific cinematography from Nicolaj Brüel.

‘Dogman’ is a film directed with considerable style, telling a story about a character one can’t help but care a great deal about, in spite of the mistakes he makes. The narrative is far from straight-laced, and the story doesn’t go where you might expect it to. It’s not without its flaws, but it’s very successfully in drawing you in and it’s certainly not a film you’ll forget.

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