Matt Hurt’s review published on Letterboxd:
r/LetterboxdOfficial Film Club - 001 - Yorgos Lanthimos
This was the second Yorgos Lanthimos film I've seen. The first was The Killing of a Sacred Deer (link to my ridiculously vague review here) earlier this year. I left Sacred Deer confused and uncomfortable with what I had seen. So it's no surprise I'm coming away from Dogtooth with a similar reaction.
Dogtooth is weird. It's the story of three siblings who live in isolation with their overprotective parents. The movie goes to some disturbing places with that conceit that left my skin crawling a bit. There's a scene with a cat that was particularly upsetting. And there was another scene where one of the siblings retaliates against another after he uses her toy airplane that I found disturbing.
I won't spoil it, but the casual nature in which she doles out this very quick punishment unnerved me. It showed how unaware the siblings are about many things. That they can do something somewhat instinctly without having that fear of consequence or empathy toward another is what got so under my skin. The fact that the parents are shielding them from the world makes the danger of their actions more tense, I suppose.
The movie raised some interesting points about overbearing parents and how socializing and culture are important to growing as people. I think it was raising those points, at least. Much like with Sacred Deer, I'm not entirely sure what Lanthimos was trying to say with Dogtooth. The movie is well-made and captures how isolated teenagers would act and there are some clever moments where we see the parents' methodology in keeping up this ruse. But we really only ever see the world of the siblings. We're brought into that world and, to an extent, it kind of feels like the movie is just pointing out how weird these characters are.
The way the movie ends brings up a lot of questions and theories, though. The one I've landed on is a bit tragic in a way that makes me like the movie a bit more than Sacred Deer. But I'm still not 100% sure that Lanthimos' style is really my thing. I'm going to have to see The Lobster and The Favourite and see how I feel.