Wayyy overrated

Well it's true enough that I wasn't entertained. But not because it's an art film, but because it's not a GOOD art film. I was a cinema/photography major in college, I've studied art AND film and been a commercial photographer for twenty years. I've seen some strange a$$ed art films and enjoyed and appreciated most of them(and also forgotten most) I just think this was an over the top self indulgent very well made piece of crap. Just because you can convince people it's art doesn't mean it is. Watch "Exit Through the Gift Shop" Just my opinion.

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overwhelmingly art movies are made by boring untalented hacks that get by with seemingly confusing *beep* that is just pretty nonsense in place of actual storytelling/filmmaking.

tree of life
boyhood
uhhh
I dont know I tend to avoid these types

I also agree. I am a fan of these indie style art house movies as well, but only when they are entertaining in and of themselves. It's not "artistic" just because you leave the camera on your subject for uncomfortably long, it's boring.

This movie had a lot of interesting concepts and a few interesting scenes, but it did absolutely NOTHING with them. What was the point of any of this? My biggest problem was actually motivations. Why were the parents doing this? Normally in this kind of situation, the parents would either be using the children for sex, or have some crazy religious cult mentality. But you see none of that here. Is that what makes it "interesting", the fact that I have to guess?

The closest it came was when the one daughter asked to lick the father's ear, and you hear his pants unzip for a half a second, indicating, maybe there's some kind of incest. The "protecting them from the world" logic doesn't work, because why would they ever bring ANYONE into the compound, unless they were specifically in on it. I mean Christina, understood the situation apparently, but didn't really seem to care much, she just wanted the money. There's no reason the daughters couldn't have been satisfying the son from the beginning (in a logical scenario).

And then the lies about meanings of words? What does that do other than make it harder for the parents to communicate with their children, since they then have to remember every definition they made up on the spot? Without motivation that just leaves "the parents were crazy", which honestly, is just a little lazy, and not fun to watch.

And then the fact that ALL the characters just gave blank emotionless performances. Sure, it's accurate as to how the kids were supposed to be, but that doesn't make it any less boring to watch them stare at each other for a 10 minute scene.

In the end I only found myself caring about one character "Bruce", because I enjoyed her transformation and discovery, and desire to see the real world. So the movie did succeed on that part, but I feel watching the whole movie was not worth that little bit. This could have been a 30 minute short film just as easily.

I was looking for this thread now that I have seen the movie.

Dogtooth is totally overrated. I was looking through the back pages of reviews, it's like ten "MIND BLOWING AND INTESE" to every one "BORING, NOTHING HAPPENS" posts. Really? Where all those people really so captivated? Did I watch the same movie?

You all got it right on this thread already. The 'Exit Through The Gift Shop' reference is spot on. I can't figure out why more people don't feel this way? I came to this movie through IMDB and was stoked that it existed. The idea of some parents trapping and brainwashing their kids down to such detail like changing word meanings and explaining airplanes away is awesome. Such a good idea.

There wasn't much of any of that though. It was hard to figure out what was going on in most of the scenes, and when you did understand it was all pretty minor stuff. They had a pretty normal life considering. I thought more would happen, not so much an explanation but at least a climax.

It wasn't very deep...

So I'm glad you all agree.

That being said, it wasn't a bad movie. Just SEVERELY overrated. If people had described it better the let-down wouldn't have been so bad.

"And then the fact that ALL the characters just gave blank emotionless performances."

Ahh, yes, the hipster trademark: forced overly awkward/vacant/emotionless and lifeless, and creepy body language.
Have you ever browsed the web, particularly a photography themed website like tumblr, and saw one of those pointless, awkward photos of a girl/guy posing with their body hunched over all static and lifeless, probably in the middle of a grassy field? (Crystal Castles album cover, for example. Google if must)
Yeah...that's this movie. It took that cliche and ran with it.
It really embraces all of those cliches of making a film that will appeal to hipsters.

I'm all for art films, but there's just a certain vibe that movies like this give me that makes me disgusted with myself. I'd hate to toss the word "hipster" around some more, but that's definitely what/whom the director is trying hard to cater the movie to - and if you take the time to check out some of the movies fans on somewhere like facebook(search "dogtooth"), you'll see a majority of them fall in to the hipster cliche, whether it be on their bio, or their choice of super-cool fashion and thick glasses.
I've never really had the right state of mind or taste to enjoy something like this.
My twin brother seems to enjoy this movie (it's listed under his favorites), and he has watched zero artsy films in his whole life, and only seen this thanks to being bored and picking at random on Netflix...So, perhaps I'll ask him why he enjoyed this, especially since his other favorite movies are blockbuster hits.

"Goodbye Dragon-Inn" was more entertaining than this. Even the 3 minute static shots of empty hallways didn't frustrate me as much. I watched a movie about women in a movie theater watching a movie, and you only see their facial expressions the whole time...That was more bearable than Dogtooth as well.

Really, you thought "Bruce" was "emotionless"? When she slashed her brother? When she attacked him in the pool? When she told him if he attempted to screw her again she would kill him? When she bashed her dogtooth out?

Did you think the father and mother were emotionless at the end?

The characters were supposed to be zombie-like, which made the mention of this term by the security guard that much more ironic. But it was clear by a certain point in the film that Bruce had begun to imagine another way of being, which involved finding inappropriate outlets for her emotions, which to me made the ending all the more tragic.

I don't think the film was overrated. Extremely disturbing, yes. The incest, father's brutality, and the murder of that kitten totally creeped me out. But provocative in a good way. Not anything we'll see from Hollywood anytime soon, either.

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It's a very interesting subject. No doubt about that. Those kind of weird families are out there. But this movie failed big time. Like you said, the pins were set up ;)



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