DOGS & STARS

The good thing about Year of the Dog is that it has Molly Shannon in a quirky dramatic role, and she's really, really awesome. Also, Peter Sarsgaard is adorably hot and you'll totally want to make out with him.

The bad thing about Year of the Dog is that there isn't much else that's very good. I like Mike White a lot, and his trademark brand of uncomfortably-funny irritaining dramedy is usually pretty watchable, but this time it all fell flat. I ended up wanting to like it a lot more than I actually liked it.

Despite the completely misleading trailer, it's neither romantic enough or funny enough to be a romantic comedy. Thematically, Mike White puts a lot out there about the nature of grief, obsession, and finding meaning in a meaningless world. But it all didn't amount to much for me -- it felt like the movie merely "happened". I was neither engaged or bored, just sort of there, watching it.

That being said, Molly Shannon is awesome and deserves enough notice from this movie to get more dramatic roles -- and of course, there are TONS of cute doggies. I just felt like the script kept screaming dammit, I'm quirky!, trying sooooo hard to sidestep similar territory like The Truth About Cats & Dogs or Must Love Dogs that it ends up waaaaay too precious for it's own good.

The sky above us as we walked out of the screening room was really nice, even though my crappy cameraphone didn't quite do it justice.