beingmichael's Blog

This is going to antagonize some of the big-dog bloggers I’m sure.

I saw Year of the Dog this past weekend at the Angelika.  If you don’t know about it yet, it’s a tightly written, funny, sad, weird Molly Shannon movie about love, human relationships and, yes, DOGS.

The only bad part about it (and I’m not sure it’s really bad) is the heavy handed animal rights agenda in which the movie is framed.  It’s no secret PETA is one of the sponsors of this film.  And the surprise ending is enough to make you wonder if you just sat through some hard core propaganda.

That said, the movie pokes some serious fun at so-called animal rights extremists.  And as I’ve thought back on it I suspect it was less a recruitment film for animal rights and more a celebration of folks on the fringe who love animals as much as (or more than) they love people.  If that comes as a surprise too, I can assure you there are many people in the dog world who will openly tell you they get along with dogs better than they get along with people.

I’m not one of them.  But some days it’s a toss up.  What about you?  People person?  Dog person?  Saw the movie and loved it?  Or did you hate it? 

 (Below: my dog at 14 weeks and at 9 years)