I don't really know how describe how I feel about this movie. At the risk of sounding like a basic white girl, I'd say this movie is just so random. It's an art film that seems to try too hard to be artistic, with nearly everything about every shot seemingly randomly selected out of a hat. Is this shot gonna be hand held? Maybe we will reverse an image from a street camera for about three seconds then loop it for 30- seconds. How about a close up shot? Lets cover the camera lens with rain drops over these next three shots for no reason. The sound quality also cuts out many times, with parts of the speakers words seeming disjointed and stitched together. Yet I can't help but almost love this movie. It's narrative seems almost stream- of-conscious like; it rarely makes too much sense or flows well together, yet Laurie Anderson obviously wants to get a message across. This messages seems to mainly be about the important events in her life, her love for her deceased dog, and how her Buddhist beliefs and practices affected all of this. There truly is nothing like this film that I've ever seen, which is perhaps the best compliment I can give a movie. It's an avant garde and experimental documentary made for the modern era. Lots of it fails and comes of as pretentious, but what it lacks in artistic skill it makes up for with it many moving and thought provoking stories told by the immediately captivating voice of its narrator. It's a case of the visual aspect of a film failing the actual content of the film. I love it. I hate it. I recommend people to try it and decide how they feel about it for themselves.
Review of Heart of a Dog
