Dogman (2018 Film)
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''Dogman'' is a 2018
drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...
- noir thriller inspired by real events involving Er Canaro, and directed by
Matteo Garrone Matteo Garrone is an Italian filmmaker. Early life Matteo Garrone was born in Rome, Italy, the son of a theatre critic, Nico Garrone and a photographer, Donatella Rimoldi. Career In 1996 Garrone won the ''Sacher d'Oro'', an award sponsored b ...
. It was selected to compete for the
Palme d'Or The (; ) is the highest prize awarded to the director of the Best Feature Film of the Official Competition at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festiv ...
at the
2018 Cannes Film Festival The 71st annual Cannes Film Festival took place from 8 to 19 May 2018. Australian actress Cate Blanchett served as jury president for the main competition. Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda won the ''Palme d'Or'', the festival's top prize, fo ...
. At Cannes, Marcello Fonte won the award for Best Actor. Although selected as the Italian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the
91st Academy Awards The 91st Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best 2018 in film, films of 2018 and took place on February 24, 2019, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. During th ...
, it was not nominated.


Plot

Marcello is a small, mild man, living in a dilapidated beach settlement in
Castel Volturno Castel Volturno () is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Caserta in the Italian region Campania, located about northwest of Naples and about west of Caserta on the Volturno river. The town has a population of almost 30,000 residents, ...
; he owns a dog grooming shop, and divides his days between his work, his daughter, Alida - who lives with her mother, from whom he is separated - and socialising with other locals. He supplements his meager income by selling cocaine to acquaintances. One is Simone, a huge and thuggish former boxer who terrorises the neighborhood. The extent of this abusive friendship is demonstrated when one night, Simone forces Marcello to take part a burglary, since he has a van and can act as the driver. The job runs smoothly, but Marcello hears his accomplice describe how he put a Chihuahua in the freezer to make it stop barking. After receiving his token share of the loot, Marcello returns to the scene, retrieves the dog, and revives it. Simone continues to cause havoc, punching a restaurateur and breaking his nose. Some locals discuss what can be done about him, but no decision is made. Marcello is silent throughout. Later that night, Simone forces Marcello to get cocaine for him from his supplier without paying for it. Accompanying him, Simone is turned down due to his debts. The thug responds by brutally beating the dealer and one of his henchmen, leaving with a haul of coke that he and Marcello consume in a strip club. On leaving, Simone is shot by a man on a motorbike. After refusing to go to hospital, Marcello takes Simone to Simone's mother's house to tend to him. Here, Simone and his mother have a brief argument over the cocaine; his mother is upset by his addiction. One day, Simone discovers that Marcello's shop shares a hollow wall with a cash-for-gold shop, and decides to rob it. Marcello tries to dissuade him, as the owner is his friend, but Simone bullies Marcello into giving him the key to his own shop. Next morning, Marcello discovers that Simone carried out the robbery, leaving a gaping hole in the wall, incriminating him. Marcello is arrested. During the questioning, a police officer makes it clear that they know Simone was responsible and tries to convince Marcello to rat, but he refuses and is imprisoned. One year later, Marcello returns home a pariah, rejected even by his cocaine supplier, and having to rebuild his business from scratch. Desperate for money, he tracks down Simone and asks for his share of the robbery (around 10,000 euros), but can see it was spent on a motorbike. Simone only gives him 300 euros. Hardened by prison, Marcello retaliates by smashing up the bike. The next day, the bully beats him up in public. After this, Marcello plots his revenge. After a few days, Marcello seeks Simone out again, apologising for the bike and proposing they rob some cocaine suppliers that are meeting at his shop, to which Simone agrees. When Simone arrives, Marcello tells him to hide in one of the dog cages and wait for his signal. Simone reluctantly does so, only to be locked in it by Marcello, who now taunts the bully. Simone manages to kick the door open, and sticks his head out, whereupon Marcello brains him with a metal bar. Marcello chains Simone to the wall, duct taping his ankles and hands together, and treats his injury, but Simone traps Marcello's head under his arms and begins to strangle him. In trying to free himself, Marcello kills Simone by causing the grooming table upon which he's sitting to lower, strangling him with the chain. Shocked, Marcello tries to dispose of the body by setting it on fire in a field. Hearing his former friends playing football (in what is likely a hallucination), he tries to capture their attention by shouting to them that the bully is finally dead, to no avail. He then takes the corpse back to the football field, only to discover that his friends have left. Marcello eventually decides to bring the corpse to a playground at the main square, waiting for people to notice.


Cast

* Marcello Fonte as Marcello * Edoardo Pesce as Simone ("Simoncino") * Alida Baldari Calabria as Alida * Nunzia Schiano as Simoncino's mother * Adamo Dionisi as Franco * Francesco Acquaroli as Francesco


Reception


Critical response

On review aggregator
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
, the film holds an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The website's critical consensus reads, "''Dogman'' offers a grim character study set apart by Marcello Fonte's performance and director Matteo Garrone's tight grip on the material." On
Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
, the film has a weighted average of score of 71 out of 100, based on 29 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


See also

* Er Canaro *
List of submissions to the 91st Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film This is a list of submissions to the 91st Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) has invited the film industries of various countries to submit their best film for the Academy Award ...
*
List of Italian submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film Italy has submitted films for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film since the conception of the award. The award is handed out annually by the United States Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to a feature-length motion p ...


References


External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dogman 2018 films 2018 crime drama films Films about dogs Films directed by Matteo Garrone Italian crime drama films 2010s Italian-language films Crime drama films based on actual events Italian-language crime drama films Le Pacte films Films with screenplays by Massimo Gaudioso