I love this movie so much

Thanks for the memories!

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Of course, performance artist Laurie Anderson's film "Heart of a Dog" isn't really about a dog or dogs in general, at least that's not solely what it's about. Anderson narrates the picture, (and hers is the only voice we hear), which is a post 9/11 essay on New York, on America, on language and on loss, all of which is par for the course for Anderson who lulls you into a sense of false security with what, superficially, is the story of her beloved rat terrier, Lolabelle.Even the slightest knowledge of Anderson's work will tell you what you're letting yourself in for, so this isn't a conventional 'film' as such but something akin to performance art on film. Indeed seeing this in a cinema almost defeats the purpose; best to see this in a gallery, sunk deep in an armchair, sipping on something cool and try to forget about 9/11 and Anderson's paranoia and fears and keep telling yourself...it's all about a dog.

This is one of the cases where the film is intensely personal and completely unrestrained and unrestricted that it really is a matter of connecting with the filmmaker themselves or not. Unfortunately, I was the latter. There are moments of poignancy and relevance for me especially as a dog-lover — the film's highest point for me being the realizations after a certain death— however, the film's diary/journal format means that it delves into other related, and others sometimes random, subjects and thoughts that one might not be into exploring.

Tremendously moving and beautiful, and the best capturing of Laurie Anderson's unique combination of off-beat humor, heartbreak, poetry music, images, animation, stories, Buddhist philosophy and artistic experimentation yet on film. In theory it's the story of Anderson's relationship with Lolabelle, her beloved terrier, as the dog moves through life towards aging and death. But it is also clearly thematically about her love for, and loss of her husband Lou Reed, and her pondering of her own mortality and the meaning of life. Yet as dour and daunting as that sounds, Anderson never loses sight of the joy that abides with sorrow, knowing that there is no love without pain, and no pain without the seeds of joy. And while it's a heady mix, and resolutely refuses to act anything like a 'normal' movie, Anderson is also the most accessible of experimentalists. She has no interest in torturing or confounding her audience, just catching them off guard and getting them to think new ways - - but always with a smile, a wink and a chuckle at it all. She's a tremendously important artist, and this film is great for fans and newcomers alike.

I am sure that I am going to get into trouble but I believe in all honesty that this film was a total dud. There are are very few films that I walk out of (I see at least 60 a year) but this was one of them. I have had dogs as pets - lots of them. I admire them for their faithfulness and their ability to put one in a good mood. But to base a complete film on a dog and to impute feelings that a dog supposedly has is ridiculous. I have no issue at all with someone making a film on this topic but to expect me to pay money to see it - which I did - is too much. This film is simply one person's egocentric take on her own perceptions - nothing more, nothing less.