Wiener-Dog

While misfit indie auteur Todd Solondz's eighth feature further mines the trademark suburban misanthropy minted in 1998 breakout film Happiness (whose protagonists ranged from an obscene phone-caller to a predatory paedophile dad), Wiener-Dog might be his most optimistic work. Its quartet of stories representing four life stages are linked by the titular, serene dachshund, passed between owners like a parcel: an inquisitive young cancer patient (Keaton Nigel Cooke); a socially unmoored grown-up version of Dawn Wiener from Solondz's Welcome to the Dollhouse (Greta Gerwig); a despised New York film tutor (Danny DeVito); and a crotchety blind grandmother (Ellen Burstyn). But wherever the dog goes she brings unconditional love, companionship and solace and, admittedly, one explosive bout of tummy trouble. Staged in Solondz's preferred flat, slow monotone but gorgeously photographed by Ed Lachman (Carol, Far from Heaven), the downbeat milieu is playfully shattered by a musical "intermission" in which Wiener-Dog becomes the trotting star of various movie genres. Apart from an idyllic couple with Down's syndrome (Connor Long, Bridget Brown), the humans don't come out of it well, but Wiener-Dog herself surely offers uncomplicated hope, a rare commodity in Solondz's world.