Director: Quentin Dupieux
Year Released: 2012
Rating: 1.5
A man (Jack Plotnick) wakes up, discovers his dog is missing and things become continuously (and annoyingly) weirder - he even encounters a self-help guru (William Fichtner) who claims to have tried to kidnap said canine. Dupieux - who made the pleasantly off-beat Rubber - seems to think throwing odd moments and conversations on the screen means they'll add up to something of substance, but crafting a movie of entirely absurdist humor (which the Pythons were usually brilliant at) is quite a challenge - at best the approach can be subversive, satirical (Life of Brian) and even hilarious (Monty Python and the Holy Grail), at worst it can seem intellectually vacant and self-indulgent (it's clear which category this movie falls into). There are cute bits, like the office Plotnick keeps returning to (despite being fired weeks prior) that's being perpetually rained on and Fichtner's bizarre proclamations (he essentially steals the movie), but this is largely a shapeless trifle.
