Billed as the “spiritual successor” of director Todd Solondz’ (Happiness) much-loved coming-of-age satire Welcome to the Dollhouse, Wiener-Dog is in keeping with darkly comic yet deeply vulnerable tone for which he is best known. This latest film is an anthology featuring people who find their lives inspired or changed by one particularly cute dachshund who seems to be spreading a certain kind of comfort and joy. Man’s best friend starts out teaching a young boy some contorted life lessons before being taken in by a compassionate vet tech named Dawn Wiener (the character played by Heather Matarazzo in Welcome to the Dollhouse is played here by Greta Gerwig). Dawn reunites with someone from her past and sets off on a road trip picking up some depressed mariachis along the way. Wiener-Dog then encounters a floundering film professor (Danny DeVito), as well as an embittered elderly woman (Ellen Burstyn) and her needy granddaughter—all longing for something else. Also starring Kieran Culkin and Julie Delpy.
“If anything binds the tales together, in fact, it is not the central beast but the persistence of the director’s misanthropy and the disarming elegance with which he lends it dramatic form.” – The New Yorker
“Students of the filmmaker’s exactingly composed mise-en-thropy will revel in the new pic’s freezing wit, jaundiced societal observation and inventive star casting.” – Variety
Monday, August 9
Doors 8:45 pm | Movie 9:15 pm
Tickets $10 advance HERE | $12 door
Sunday, August 21
Doors 6:00 pm | Movie 6:30 pm
Tickets $10 advance HERE | $12 door
*Minors OK; please note this film is rated 18A. Must be 19+ w/ID for bar service.
**Groupons and passes OK! Please redeem at the door.
WIENER-DOG (Todd Solondz, 2016 / 90 mins / ) A cute dachshund puppy finds itself shuffled from one oddball owner to the next, including two couples, a veterinary nurse a screenwriter and a bitter woman whose radically dysfunctional lives are all impacted by the pooch.