66
Metascore
14 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100Chicago TribuneMichael WilmingtonChicago TribuneMichael WilmingtonBe forewarned: Dog Days, like many of Seidel's films, will drive some moviegoers to rage and walkouts with its unrelentingly depressing tone. But it also a remarkable, deeply disturbing work by a brilliant filmmaker.
- 90VarietyDeborah YoungVarietyDeborah YoungAn acid portrait of contemporary Austria (and by extension, the whole middle class) as unspeakably dull, violent and stupid. The film itself, miraculously, is just the opposite: vibrantly inventive, aesthetically rigorous, sardonic and occasionally quite brilliant.
- 80The New York TimesA.O. ScottThe New York TimesA.O. ScottThe believability comes from the casting: he has found a group of actors and nonprofessionals who interact spectacularly well.
- 75New York PostV.A. MusettoNew York PostV.A. MusettoDog Days has much in common with "Code Unknown" -- both dart among several characters who may occasionally cross paths.
- 75San Francisco ChronicleEdward GuthmannSan Francisco ChronicleEdward GuthmannHis (Seidl) camera is shocking in its intimacy, his film surprisingly casual in its depiction of extreme behavior and the randomness of violence.
- 70The Hollywood ReporterThe Hollywood ReporterWillfully provocative, much like a small child performing outrageous acts just to get some attention.
- 50Village VoiceDennis LimVillage VoiceDennis LimDog Days adheres dogmatically to the school of sado-miserablism that Seidl's compatriots Michael Haneke and Jessica Hausner have turned into something of a national industry (non-Austrian adherents abound too, from Gaspar Noé to Harmony Korine).
- 50Christian Science MonitorDavid SterrittChristian Science MonitorDavid SterrittSome scenes of Ulrich Seidl's first fiction feature (he's already a respected documentary maker) are so brutal and degrading that they're hard to watch. Others are highly atmospheric and sometimes quite funny.
- 50The A.V. ClubScott TobiasThe A.V. ClubScott TobiasWorking with non-professional actors, Seidl emphasizes their ordinariness to the point of cartoonish ridicule, putting them in scenarios either banal, perverse, or both at the same time.