The Upcoming
  • Cinema & Tv
    • Movie reviews
    • Show reviews
    • Interviews
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Cannes
      • Sundance London
      • Venice
      • London
  • Music
    • Live music
    • Album reviews
    • Interviews
  • Food & Drinks
    • News & Features
    • Restaurant & bar reviews
    • Interviews & Recipes
  • Theatre
    • Fringe
    • Vault Festival
    • Interviews
  • Art
  • Travel & Lifestyle
  • Interviews
  • Fashion & Beauty
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
  • Join the team
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Competitions
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

Culture Cinema & Tv Movie reviews

Dog Eat Dog

Dog Eat Dog | Movie review
12th November 2016
Alexander Bawden
Avatar
Alexander Bawden
12 November 2016

Movie and show review

Alexander Bawden

Dog Eat Dog

★★★★★

Release date

18th November 2016

There’s a boisterous, gory charm to Paul Schrader’s film that conceals a rather thoughtful subtext. Based on the novel by Eddie Bunker, San Quentin Prison’s youngest inmate as of 1951, Dog Eat Dog is a semi-autobiographical story that draws upon the author’s own hardships following his release.

Starring Nicolas Cage and Willem Defoe as ex-cons hired to kidnap a rival mobster’s baby, the narrative follows their antics as they resort to crime once more as a way of finding purpose in their lives. It’s an overworked concept that has been brilliantly reimagined into a trippy, hedonistic bloodbath, with imagery to equal Tarrantino.

The opening sequence is an intriguing introduction to Willem Dafoe’s character, Mad Dog, who “self medicates” an alarming amount of cocaine in a vibrantly kitsch room, before murdering his heavyset lover. In a strange way, it’s a cathartic experience, watching the path of destruction the protagonists carve, and it’s punctuated by darkly humorous moments: Cage’s hopeless attempts to woo prostitutes becomes a running gag, and Defoe manages to snort a line off all the props. 

Despite this, there’s a bumbling feel to the movie that stems from false security; a cocky attitude mixed with striking visuals from cinematographer Alexander Dynan will help make Dog Eat Dog a cult hit, but it fails to draw in its audience. The stereotypical characters, from the leads to supporting cast make it hard to empathise, and in the end it feels like the plot is simply going through the motions of storytelling while on LSD.

The power behind the cinematography, other than the sheer technical talent, is the masculinity crisis portrayed on screen, parallel to our own reality. It explores the sense of anomie derived from our society’s fragmented them-and-us culture, reinforced through wealth, colour, gender, and resulting in our anti-heroes clinging desperately to each other in a world that makes no sense to them after their lives in institutionalised prison.

It’s a powerful story that isn’t investigated nearly enough, and it’s a real missed opportunity when the book behind the film was written by a man who wrote about his personal criminal experiences.

Dog Eat Dog lives up to its name as a chaotic blood fest of cinema, and is tongue in cheek enough to win most over. While it’s not his finest moment, Schrader has created something that will no doubt gain a devoted following, due in part to its pedigree cast.

★★★★★

Alexander Bawden

Dog Eat Dog is released on 18th of November 2016.

Watch the trailer for Dog Eat Dog here:

 

Related Itemsreview

More in Movie reviews

Eileen

★★★★★
Selina Sondermann
Read More

Wish

★★★★★
Guy Lambert
Read More

Girl

★★★★★
Umar Ali
Read More

Maestro

★★★★★
Filippo L'Astorina, the Editor
Read More

The Eternal Daughter

★★★★★
Selina Sondermann
Read More

Ronnie O’Sullivan: The Edge of Everything

★★★★★
Umar Ali
Read More

Rustin

★★★★★
Matthew McMillan
Read More

Napoleon

★★★★★
Musanna Ahmed
Read More

Is There Anybody Out There?

★★★★★
Matthew McMillan
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Movie and show review

Alexander Bawden

Dog Eat Dog

★★★★★

Release date

18th November 2016

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • The House of Bernarda Alba at the National Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Eileen
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • The House of Bernarda Alba at the National Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Eileen
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Wish
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Girl
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • A Christmas Carol at the Old Vic
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • The House of Bernarda Alba at the National Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Wish
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • A Christmas Carol at the Old Vic
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible Is Going to Happen at Bush Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Girl
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
The Upcoming
  • Contact us
  • Join the team
  • Subscribe to the mailing list
  • Support us
  • Writing for The Upcoming

Copyright © 2011-2023 FL Media