Therapy Dogs

High school seniors and best friends Ethan (writer and director Ethan Eng) and Justin (Justin Morrice) stand in front of the camera with huge grins on their faces. Their plan is to make a film to chronicle their final year to uncover “the truth about high school”. What follows is a chaotic collage of youth and rebellion as the teenagers indulge in partying and general adolescent stupidity.

Therapy Dogs is best described as a found footage coming-of-age film. Comprised entirely of what are designed to be candid shots of high schoolers being high schoolers give Eng’s feature a documentary-like aesthetic that heightens its verisimilitude. With no real plot to speak of, the scenes are stitched together as an angsty stream of consciousness, complete with rudimentary title cards like “Kyle’s Story” and “Parties Suck”.

Whether it’s watching Justin and Ethan knock lumps out of each other or lockers for the fun of it, or running through packed school hallways dressed as Wolverine, Eng brilliantly captures the carefree spirit of youthful rebellion. Underneath the drugs and alcohol, the filmmaker also taps into anxieties about what the future may hold. “You’re not going to have fun with your friends forever,” Justin’s mum tells him at the start of the feature. Instead of acknowledging the lesson behind these words, though, Justin would rather throw himself out of a moving car. Likewise, a drunken heart-to-heart between the two friends about a future without each other leads to Justin becoming frustrated and angry.

However, there’s only so much footage of underage drinking Therapy Dogs can show before it begins to get repetitive. Before it wears out its welcome, though, Eng hits out with an unexpected and devastating gut punch that comes out of nowhere. From herein the remainder of the film is flipped on its head and the meaning of the unruly energy that’s characterised everything thus far is thrown into question.

Combining an endlessly playful spirit with existential fears about adulthood, Eng’s Therapy Dogs is as authentic a high school movie as it gets.

Andrew Murray

Therapy Dogs does not have a UK release date yet.

Read more reviews from our Glasgow Film Festival 2023 coverage here.

For further information about the event visit the Glasgow Film Festival website here.

Watch the trailer for Therapy Dogs here: