Dog Bowl (2015) User Reviews

Dog Bowl Mystifies

[vanheydenauthor · 7/10 · 21 April 2015]

Saw this American made film short at the Nashville Film Festival, was very pleasantly surprised with the story line since I have written a screenplay for a full length feature that is not too distant in similarity to the theme. The casting, directing and pace were all quality efforts.

Due to its length there wasn't enough dialog or time to mount significant character development, that is a given; but, of what was presented it sufficed for the short and it sufficed to give the audience a vicarious jolt worthy of a Hitchcock plot.

The next is a bit of spoiler: if you agree that there are "Lives beyond the familiar" then your appetite will be well satisfied with DOG BOWL.

Utterly forgettable

[tdok-30198 · 1/10 · 31 August 2019]

I've known about this movie for years and have always wanted to see it. Well, I was very underwhelmed. The acting felt like a high school play. Perhaps since I am not a part of the elite Hollywood crowd I just 'don't get it' but this was a dud for me. The ending dialog was reaching for dramatic but felt like an 8 year old reading something. I guess I will never get that 20 minutes of my life back. Save yourself the time and watch something else.

Dog Bowl

[imhotrader · 9/10 · 26 June 2015]

Anytime I go to see -The Short Film- I brace myself. The mere mention of a short film conjures up images of giant yawns. And there are other times when I just shake my head and think, "what the hell?" The tendency is to cramp way too many ideas into too few moments. Or worst of all, "artistic license abuse".

Thankfully, Dog Bowl was none of these. I was pleasantly surprised by its simplicity. At first, I was confused by the main character's behavior. Debra seemed to be suffering with a bout of dissociation, coupled with Tourette Syndrome. The first time this happens is when she starts slapping her lover during sex. Jolly, her boyfriend, becomes slightly alarmed when she starts slapping him with no other purpose but to slap. And then she rudely interrupts him while he is sitting on the toilet, a very uncomfortable moment. We come to find out later, that there is an unearthly explanation for this behavior.

The movie was well shot and the production value was impressive. I enjoyed the writing, using an extraterrestrial approach to what can easily be consider a real-life emotionally conflicted human experience. I can remember as a teen-ager acting out for no apparent reason and then later wondering, "what I was thinking". A total lack of control over the situation. The movie's message to me is; "hang tight, more will be revealed."