| RATING: | 80% |
| FORMAT: | DVD |
[Dogtooth]
Movie about White supremacism - made by Whites - that never steps outside its own premiss to present any genuine perspective on the events shown: Appropriately-claustrophobic, but somewhat dramatically dishonest.
Like a Michael HANEKE movie (especially Funny Games), we are presented with a White culture in meltdown; after having given up on a reality that no longer matches its ideology, now that the various European empires have collapsed.
The desire shown here to emotionally cripple and retard ones own offspring so that they fear the outside world more than their parents, dooms them to a permanent state of never being fledged and, thus, of being unable to survive outside that nest. This provides for the parents’ neurotic need to be loved by their children rather than the other way around; while also perpetuating the decline of a culture that is allegedly protected by such abusive behavior.
The retreat from reality that the adult characters allege is both unbearable and dangerous is emphasized by twisting language - in a parody of Orwellian Newspeak - and giving words random meanings.
The incestuous nature of White culture is posited by the inevitability of the family’s actual incest; given that they know no-one outside of the family with whom any normal sexual expression could ever take place. The inability to empathize with others inevitably lies behind this social failing.
The film also illustrates the bizarre, neophobic fears of Western Whites that lead them to create White supremacist immigration controls, irrelevant citizenship tests, gated communities, punishing the poor for being the victims of economic recession, etc. And worse, this movie suggests that this is the rationale behind all attempts at emotional repression (as a substitute for culture & civilization); resulting in masculine violence and female masochism.
The culture here is revealed in all its emptiness, superficiality & materialism. A decadent polity that teaches no ethics, neither in schools nor at home - and that those who refuse to know better deem the decay acceptable. Posturing as a movie about Christian values, this is really about a Western family model that no longer works given the failure of Christianity to live up to its personal and political promises.
The characterization here is thin since the actors are (albeit brilliantly) performing archetypes. And where, in all this, is there a solution to the problems of a culture in transition that refuses to know that it is? A supremely-accurate description of a culture’s end, but no more than that.
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