dogtooth, yorgos lanthimos, 2009
this movie was very weird. it begins being funny and somewhat casual but always with the feeling that something was off. and it was. very much.
you feel like you're in there with them through the whole movie. there's almost no music playing, it gives you a very homemade feeling, but at the same time, what IS home? i mean, is home where we live in or where we feel like we belong? is questioning an instinct or do you learn it? is dancing something you reproduce or is it pure expression? does learning words really matter if people understand what you're trying to say?
i got reminded constantly about the plato's cave idea, that reality is not the perception that we have. we are only able to see shadows and take that as reality (greeks, am i right?). but in a way, that's it. until we are "old enough" to have our own opinions or thoughts we are guided by the people responsible for us to think like they do and act like they say. that's our reality until they say otherwise.
i don't think that what moved the father was being overprotective and worried about the effect of the real world on their children but the sense of power, of knowing he could do that and no one would stop him.
i had a hard time telling if i should laugh or be disturbed by most parts of this movie and that makes me want to watch it again.
the scene where the father shows the frank sinatra song as being their grandfather totally creeped me out. we hear what he wants to say, even though the message is right there, they just don't know how to understand it.
i understand that all the sex scenes were supposed to give us an idea of how controlled their feelings and relationships were too but i have a problem about them being directed by a man, who's constantly trying to send an incest message to the other side of the screen. i've been decieved by many other male directors who were only satisfying their own fetishes through their movies and it makes me more uncomfortable than usual (which is already very uncomfortable).
overall, i really liked it, and i'm probably gonna watch it again someday.
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