Dogman

Italy is my idea for the best country in the solar system. The textbook example for finest food, wine, architecture, landscape, culture. Up to the 1970s I could've added cinema to the above reasons for loving Italy. Alas, Italian cinema took a nosedive in the last 3 decades with a few notable exceptions of talented auteurs - Sorrentino, Guadagnino, maybe Moretti.

Which brings me to Dogman's - and Gomorrah's - creator, Matteo Garrone. Garrone's Italy is not the Italy I love. His is an Italy steeped in cruelty, a violent dog-eat-dog arena where survival of the most ruthless is the lay of the land. Dogman is Garrone's unofficial follow-up to Gomorrah, a dark epic of friendship, betrayal, immorality, and, you guessed right, unbridled violence. A movie at once humane and inhumane, and for that reason, a rare treat for the cinephile.

Dogman is a small masterpiece and Garrone is a cane sciolto just like his anti-heroes. And he's one of the great directors of our time.