Dogman is an Italian movie in English subtitles. Co-written and directed by Matteo Garrone, the story takes place at a seaside village on the outskirts of an Italian city, where the only law seems to be survival of the fittest.

The story focuses on Marcello, played by Marcello Fonte, who won Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival for his role of playing a slight, mild-mannered man. He divides his days between working at his modest dog grooming salon, caring for his daughter Alida, played by Alida Baldari Calabria, and being coerced into the petty criminal schemes of the local bully Simoncino, played by Edoardo Pesce. He is an ex-boxer who terrorizes the neighborhood. Simoncino’ s abuse eventually brings Marcello to a breaking point. He decides to stand up for his dignity through an act of vengeance. The vengeance comes with unintentional consequences.

The movie opens with an image of dogs in cages and looking out at humanity. Even though the movie is about vengeance, it also about bullying – struggle between the strong and the weak.  Watching the trailer, the viewer might get the idea that Dogman is an extreme story with violence.

Garrone puts forward an idea that concerns all of us, and that is the consequence of the daily choices we make to survive. One yes leads to more yeses eventually, like Marcello, he can no longer say no. While watching the movie, I kept thinking that Marcello is a pushover or “too nice” for his own good.  He gradually, under duress, loses his innocence.

Nicolaj Bruel effectively shoots the movie with dark undertones, bright reds, and blues. The locations fit the storyline of a small town.  

It is Fonte’s sweetness and his antique face, that brings the story to fruition. How he approaches the dark material while still maintaining his naivete is a unique quality of acting. His interplay with Calabria as his daughter, Alida, are precious moments with Simoncino lurking in the undertones even when he is not in the scenes.  

Garrone wrote the story with Ugo Chiti and Massimo Gaudioso. In the production notes, he defines his movie as, “a man who, while seeking redemption after a life of humiliation, fools himself into believing that he has liberated not only himself, but his whole neighborhood, and maybe even the world. Which instead remains always the same, and almost indifferent.”