Hangdog

Year 16, Day 274 - 9/30/24 - Movie #4,859 - VIEWED ON 9/24/24

BEFORE: I had an opportunity to watch this film a week ago, as part of the After-School Special programming at the theater where I work part-time.  This essentially was the New York premiere of this indie film, which was completed last year but had not yet had a theatrical release.  Yeah, I work in independent film so I sure know the name of that song, distribution is a crazy wild unpredictable process.  You can get your film into festivals, it can win 6 or 7 awards, and still the distributors are not necessarily going to beat a path to your door.  Some films don't get a theatrical release at all, and in that case some filmmakers might have to use a booker to get their film into small theaters across the country, or worse, four-wall the film themselves, which means to buy every seat in a movie theater and then try to sell those tickets, or maybe even give them away to the right people to insure that their film at least gets SEEN by people.  It's a tough racket for sure.  

So I would love to do whatever I can to help promote "Hangdog", the director, Matt Cascella, is  graduate of the School of Visual Arts, and last week's programming was all about showcasing the work of those alumni.  And you know, I really don't end up watching a lot of little indie pictures, because my linking system kind of weeds those films out now. I used to go to film festivals on the semi-regular (I'm a three-time Sundance/Slamdance veteran, also went to Toronto FF once) and really, that's your best chance of seeing indie films these days, or at least seeing them FIRST.  So yeah, I got to see "Hangdog" before almost everyone else, except for the cast and crew. If this film takes off I can say I was THERE for the premiere. 

Now, I'm not really supposed to watch a film AND manage the screening at the same time.  Technically I'm supposed to be watching the THEATER during the screening, not the movie.  But we did all the set-up, and the event was not a full house, despite it being a free screening open to the public.  I double-checked with my venue manager that there was nothing else I needed to do during the screening (really, my job is a lot of waiting around during the screening, that's when I usually eat dinner these days) but in this case there was another house manager who kept an eye on the lobby and office while I sat in the front row of the theater. This is not something I do often, but I have been known to show up at the theater on my day off to watch a movie, as long as it's not a ticketed festival event that's OK. One of my upcoming October horror movies was watched on my day off for FREE, I just can't say the name of that film three times. 

Here's the format breakdown for September, and I'll post October's links tomorrow as we start on spooky movies:

12 Movies watched on cable (saved to DVD): The Beekeeper, The Transporter, Transporter 2, The Mechanic, Plane, Are You There God? It's Me Margaret., Disobedience, The Exception, The International, Alice Darling, Blockers, IF

1 Movies watched on cable (not saved): Rocket Science

9 watched on Netflix: Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken, Divergent, Insurgent, Allegiant, Trolls Band Together, Spaceman, Leo, Migration, The Super Mario Bros. Movie

2 watched on Amazon Prime: Drive-Away Dolls, Jackpot!
3 watched on Hulu: Infinite Storm, Self Reliance, Fool's Paradise

1 watched on Peacock: Kung Fu Panda 4

1 watched in theaters: Hangdog
2 watched on a random site: Ophelia, The Bronze

31 TOTAL

Steve Coulter carries over from "Fool's Paradise", and today's film is a replacement for "5-25-77", which has been cut for not having the CORRECT Steve Coulter in it (yes, there are two). That film will be re-scheduled, perhaps next year for Star Wars day?  Or May 25, I've really got two chances for a proper tie-in by date.   

THE PLOT: Anxiety-ridden Walt embarks on a desperate quest through Portland, Maine to retrieve his stolen dog before his girlfriend returns from a business trip, or risk losing them both. 

AFTER: I think for my year-end countdown I'm going to have to drop the category called "Movies where everything goes wrong", because really, if you think about it, that's EVERY movie, isn't it?  I'm trying hard to think of a movie where nothing goes wrong, and I just can't do it.  Whether it's a drama or a comedy, or even an action movie, if simply everything goes according to a plan, then that would be incredibly boring to watch.  I joke around a lot now when I tweet about a film's premise, and often add the hashtag #WCPGW, for "What could POSSIBLY go wrong?" but I'm being serious here, I think even at the writing stage all those people who stereotypically stare at the blank page in the typewriter or the blinking cursor on their screen seriously need to just take any premise at all and think about what could go wrong that would also advance the plot.  

The only film genres that might be immune to this are some documentaries and some romance films, but rom-coms are full of things going wrong, and a romantic drama about everything going RIGHT In a relationship would also be quite boring.  So really, that just leaves fact-filled docs and maybe some sports films, but in sports films you want to root for the underdog or the people who have to overcome adversity, and that also counts as stuff going wrong.  So, just docs about successful people then - every other movie is filled with things going wrong, because we have to feel bad before we can allow ourselves to feel good.  Right?  A happy ending can only come after people overcome their troubled situations. Prove me wrong. 

You kind of need to watch a few thousand movies in a row to really be aware of this, that's what I've found out.  My view on movies is very different than it was when I started this crazy blog, and really I blame volume, volume, volume - there's so little that I haven't seen before at this point.  Thank God some people still make weird movies so that I can still BE surprised, but I think it's a bit like building up a resistance to alcohol or drugs, the more times you experience the high, the greater the dosage you're going to need in the long run just to FEEL something.  Like one time I was on medication and I couldn't drink alcohol for six months, I lost whatever resistance I'd built up, and in six months plus one day I was at a bar that served only strong Belgian beer, and man, I was flying.  

So, since I'm looking at the approach of No Movie November, I can only imagine what it's going to feel like to go three weeks without watching a movie, and then getting back on that horse the day before Thanksgiving.  That movie might only be average, but still it might feel like a cinematic masterpiece, who can say?  Two months ago when I couldn't eat solid food for a day and a half before my colonoscopy, I ate a couple hours after the exam and the food tasted AMAZING - Cuban fried pork chops with onions, moro rice (w/beans), plantains and beets.  A meal I've had many times before, but it never tasted so good.

That's kind of how I feel after watching my first indie film in a very long time - I don't even know if I'd call anything I've watched already this year an indie film, maybe "The Strange Name Movie" or "Bathtubs Over Broadway" count, if not then maybe it's "Year of the Dog", another film about losing a dog and feeling anxiety over it. What even counts as an indie film these days - "It's a Disaster"? "See You Yesterday"? "Space Oddity"?  "Clockwatchers" was, once upon a time, I think.  I guess you kind of know it when you feel it, but generally they're films that aren't in wide release, starring a bunch of actors you don't know, and they look like they were made on a shoestring budget, like not that many locations, have no visual effects and tend to be about very personal things, like you can almost bet that someone wrote this story because it happened to them.  

But the indie films can also be very refreshing, and feel very real for all of those reasons. I'm never going to be aboard a spacecraft that's headed to another solar system, I'm never going to be on an elite squad of mercenaries trying to take over an aircraft carrier, but sure, I could lose someone's dog and feel terrilble about it, or I could be on the hook for something I did while my wife was out of town and be unable to tell her about it, these things hit home because they COULD happen to us, we could see ourselves in Walt's position.  Even moving from a city to a small town and feeling out of place, or being between jobs and feeling adrift, like we don't know what we want to do with our lives, these are very common, very real anxieties.  I get nervous whenever we open the front door, because there's always a chance that one of our cats has decided that they've had enough of living indoors, and even though they don't know what waits for them outside, they're damn well going to make the most of whatever it is. To a lesser extent, I worry that my wife will have the same feeling someday, but I'm pretty sure she'd give me some kind of heads-up first, but with the cats, it would probably be a split-second decision.  

We lost one of our family's cats when I was a kid, the one that gravitated toward my mother, and she was distraught for several days.  We walked up and down the streets of the neighborhood calling the cat's name, but that just didn't work.  The chances were against ever finding the cat again, because housecats don't really have that habit of marking their territory, like dogs do - if you wonder how lost dogs find their way back home sometimes, it's got everything to do with the smell of their urine, I think.  Whenever you walk them they're leaving themselves a road-map home, just in case.  But I was at my friend's house one day and his neighbor's dog was barking at something up in a tree, and it turned out to be my mother's cat. I called home and we rallied the troops, my mother came with kitty treats and we cleared the dog away, and we got the cat back, against all odds.  Well, the cat's dead now, but he got to spend a few more years in a house where he was cared for and loved, so there's that. 

Cat people and dog people, I know they're different and you can really only be one or the other, but Walt in this film was neither, until he started dating Wendy and she adopted a dog, Toby.  The couple started out with a rule about the dog not sleeping in bed with them, but that soon fell by the wayside.  Wendy then needed to drive to New York to make a pitch for her app idea, which left Walt alone with Toby for the first time, a chance for them to bond and a chance for Walt to prove to Wendy that he's a stable, responsible person. #WCPGW?  After walking Toby and buying dog food, he stops off at a dispensary to buy a joint, which puts him in the position of describing his exact form of anxiety to the weed dealer, because, you know, it's important to get that right.  When he comes out with the pot, the leash is still there but the dog is gone.  What to do?  

This is enough to send Walt into another anxiety-driven tailspin, because all he sees is the end of his relationship, and he does what any of us might do in this situation, he lies to his girlfriend because he still has a SLIGHT chance of finding the dog before she comes back.  If not, then he's on the hook for both losing the dog AND lying to her about it, two big relationship no-nos.  He puts up "Lost Dog" signs around town with a $500 reward, and then he has to deal with the kind of people who would call that number on a flyer for reasons other than reporting that they saw or found his dog.  And there are a few of them.  

However, as bad as the situation is, there are still some upsides to it - this puts him in touch with his mysterious neighbor who has a back porch that overlooks his backyard.  Hey, everyone's a stranger until you get to know them, and at least the neighbor's good for some beer and sympathy, it's a chance to work on his social skills.  And designing the flyer allows him to put his graphic design skills to work, he did have a secret desire to be an art director, and this counts as experience, right?

Eventually, Walt gets a call from someone who claims to have knowledge of the dog's location, he wants the reward but he also wants Walt to take the ferry out to Peaks Island to claim it.  That's where my summation of the plot ends, but I dropped a couple words in there that may give you some hints. Remember that I said there was only one kind of movie, one where things go wrong, but also there are two kinds of movies, ones where things work out for the best and ones where they don't, and I just don't want to say which kind of movie this is. But we do like it when normal people face adversity and come out on top, that's kind of a given.    

If you do get a chance to see this movie, please take it, whether it's in a theater or on streaming or DVD or if you call up the director and take him out to dinner in exchange for a screening link. This is my way of saying, "Please support independent films," even if a bigger company is streaming them to you and DON'T download them illegally. Then spread the word on social media or your blog or maybe help create or beef up the film's Wikipedia page. Somewhere a writer/director (and their pet) will be so grateful. 

Really, there might be something broken in the movie distribution system if "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" earns over a BILLION dollars and a film like "Hangdog" is considered lucky to take in a few hundred thousand. You can tell which film I think is just a pile of hot garbage. 

Also starring Desmin Borges (last seen in "Shotgun Wedding"), Catherine Curtin (last seen in "Worth"), Kelly O'Sullivan, April Clark, Barbara Rosenblat, Matthew Delamater (last seen in "The Tender Bar"), Tabitha Petrini, Robert Hadlock (last seen in "Moonrise Kingdom"), Kate Alden, Jay Dunigan, Kellon Haynes, Nicholas Zoto (last seen in "The Kitchen"), Jenna Berloni, Tyler Garstka, Wesleigh Sterrs, Amy-Jane Mooney, 

RATING: 7 out of 10 jars of artisanal pickles (Steve Coulter REALLY shines in this movie, BTW)