Dogman (2018)

Directed by: Matteo Garrone | 102 minutes | crime, drama | Actors: Marcello Fonte, Edoardo Pesce, Nunzia Schiano, Adamo Dionisi, Francesco Acquaroli, Alida Baldari Calabria, Gianluca Gobbi, Aniello Arena

The sadness drips from it in ‘Dogman’, the latest film by Matteo Garrone (‘Gomorrah’). This time it’s not the mafia, but human relations in the poor suburbs of Rome that are playing the trick. Main character Marcello (Marcello Fonte) is a good guy. The divorced dog groomer occasionally rescues a stray dog, and “helps” Simone (Edoardo Pesce) with his cocaine. He may sniff the aggressive giant in Marcello’s business, provided his daughter does not see that. Simone threatens Marcello, the two need each other too. The why doesn’t matter, you feel the interdependence. When Marcello is arrested once, for example, he gets the chance to catch up with Simone; he’d rather go to jail.

Garrone is very good at creating atmosphere; The pace and appearance of his film are parallel. The slowness of hopeless lives – with the occasional violent impulse, matches the camerawork. They are the lives of skittish creatures that move like stunned, like snails through the mud. Fonte in his leading role is touching, who was awarded the Golden Palm in Cannes earlier this year. Marcello is all resigned, affable glance, and could have been imagined wordlessly, surrounded by the everyday cacophony that doesn’t seem his own. A man who stands in the rain when it rains. Here, too, intention and execution coincide.

An enormous wealth, if you are such a director and nothing can actually go wrong, although ‘Dogman’ is relatively plot-poor. Garrone finds the sentiment in little things, like a dying puppy coming to life in the sink. He does this subtly, by gradually exposing the scenes more. The occasionally quite violent scenes are depicted crystal clear. The final plot twist is sufficiently impressive; you still wonder if there wouldn’t have been more in it in terms of dramatic tension, but Garrone seems too much of a realist for that – a determinist better. People keep repeating themselves in their misery. They are dogs in a shelter, in their aggression and helplessness.