KORNÉL MUNDRUCZCÓ: WHITE GOD (2014)


STILL FROM WHITE GOD

Doggy revolt; family trouble

When the strangely ambitious Hungarian film White God begins, the feisty 13-year-old Lili (Zsofia Psotta)) has been left with her father Daniel (Sandor Zsoter). The parents are divorced, and Daniel is irritable with Lili and rejects having Lili's "mutt" Hagen in his apartment; in fact it seems illegal. Hagen, though an amiable canine, causes no end of trouble, and Lili's standing up for him causes her trouble too. She is ousted from the youth orchestra where she plays trumpet when Hagen turns up. Her father drops Hagen on the street, when she will not accept his admittance at the pound. And then begins an adventure that blends Lassie with sci-fi and the politics of revolution. Hagen gets sold into Amores Perros-style bondage and brainwashed into temporarily, but horribly, becoming a vicious pit bull. (The footage in this sequence is grim and bloody enough to offend any animal lovers.) By chance he escapes from this to lead a revolt of dozens of fellow canines through the streets.

Kornél Mundruczcó's epic ambition in this sixth feature leads to a series of grand scenes notable for the remarkable CGI-free use of animal-wrangling. However, if you you are sold by this, you are more easily won over than I am. All the action seemed to me poorly motivated and often inexplicable and the plot is full of holes. I have to side with Mike D'Angelo again as I did on Tu dors Nicole, this time with a pan. D'Angelo calls this film "stupid," admitting it's "slightly less so" if viewed "allegorically" with the dogs representing minorities. That doesn't compute very well in detail. The idea that the whole city was terrorized by a pack of dogs running through the street isn't made convincing. All we can say is that Mundruczcó makes the most of the running dogs in the street -- except, as D'Angelo points out, it "isn't remotely scary," and the ending resolving the doggy revolt is "laughable." He's also right that the cuts back to Lili and her dad during the climatic chase waste our time, and the film's 119 minutes wind up seeming not remotely justified.

White God has material that might have worked as a short film -- with the dog-run shots used sparingly at the end (not as à la "bad television" as -- D'Angelo again -- "a surreal flash-forward 'grabber' at the outset"). Mundruczcó plays his gimmick for all it's worth and then some. The admiring reviews (there's a current Metacritic rating of 82) suggest this ploy has worked. Time will tell whether this film, with its poorly motivated human behavior, stays on to be a classic like the best animal-human dramas. The wrangling is skillful, and it's well filmed -- though there is too much annoying hand-held shaky-cam imagery throughout. Again: some sequences could be offensive to dog-lovers.

White God, 119 mins., in Hungarian with English subtitles, debuted at Cannes in Un Certain Regard and since showed at over two dozen international festivals including Sundance January 2015. Screened for this review as part of the March 2015 FSLC/MoMA series New Directors/New Films. In the US, a Magnolia Pictures release is scheduled for 27 March 2015 (limited). (Showing at Landmark Embarcadero Theaters in San Francisco starting 3 April 2015).

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©Chris Knipp. Blog: http://chrisknipp.blogspot.com/.