"Man Bites Dog" is a weird animal. At it's core, it's a playful and inventive experiment in film making and storytelling, and it would probably have worked fine even without all the brutal killings. His philosophical ramblings and eccentric personality is interesting enough by itself, but the fact that the likeable thinker is actually a murderer/rapist/thief, make his thoughts bear a different shade, as they are filtered through the mind of a mad man before formulated to the audience.

Ben, our hero and villain is as caring as he is ruthless, and the main force throughout the film. He carefully explains the how to's of the business, while bringing the camera crew along with him on his murderous adventures. His actions aren't a secret, but a well known part of life in the world of Ben. Even his friends and family know about it. It's just a part of life. Police are unheard of in this movie. But there's mailmen aplenty.

Everything, from the streets to the camera crew, begins to gradually turn into Ben. The town becomes a world designed around the character and his trade. Old houses everywhere are filled with corpses of past adventures still leaned up against walls where they died, and his usual dumping site overpopulates pretty quickly. The crew help out during shootouts, using the zoom lens to find the enemy shooter's hiding place, but the teamwork escalates into more serious business as the lines between Ben and reality blur. They make enemies out of copycat killers. Shit gets real.

Thankfully, the movie doesn't end up looping the same scenes from start to finish, even though the structure kind of feels that way up to a certain part of the film. It stays inventive and takes turns you wouldn't expect. Man Bites Dog is a masterpiece.

And come on;

One should always appreciate films where you care about people who strangle kids.