From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
2000 American film
How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog
|
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Theatrical release poster
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Directed by
| Michael Kalesniko
|
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Written by
| Michael Kalesniko
|
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Produced by
| Michael Nozik
Nancy M. Ruff
Brad Weston
|
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Starring
| Kenneth Branagh
Robin Wright Penn
Jared Harris
Lynn Redgrave
David Krumholtz
|
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Cinematography
| Hubert Taczanowski
|
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Edited by
| Pamela Martin
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Music by
| David Robbins
|
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Distributed by
| Lonsdale Productions
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Release dates
|
- September 16, 2000
(
2000-09-16
)
(Toronto)
[1]
- February 22, 2002
(
2002-02-22
)
(United States; limited)
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Running time
| 107 minutes
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Country
| United States
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Language
| English
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Budget
| $7.3 million
[2]
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Box office
| $73,510
[3]
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How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog
is a 2000 American
black comedy
film written and directed by Michael Kalesniko. It stars
Kenneth Branagh
and
Robin Wright Penn
.
Plot
[
edit
]
Peter McGowan is a
chain-smoking
,
impotent
,
insomniac
British
playwright
who lives in
Los Angeles
. Once very successful, he is now in the tenth year of a decade-long string of production failures. His latest play is in the hands of effeminate director Brian Sellars, who is obsessed with
Petula Clark
; his wife Melanie is determined to have a baby; he finds himself bonding with a new neighbor's lonely young daughter who has mild
cerebral palsy
; and during one of his middle-of-the-night strolls, he encounters his oddball
doppelganger
who claims to be Peter McGowan and develops a friendship of sorts with him.
Cast
[
edit
]
Production
[
edit
]
Petula Clark
's recordings of "
I Couldn't Live Without Your Love
" and "
A Groovy Kind of Love
" were heard during the opening and
closing credits
respectively, and "Downtown 99", a
disco
remix of her 1964 classic "
Downtown
", was heard during a party scene. Additional songs originally recorded by Petula Clark were sung by the character of Brian Sellars throughout the film.
Reception
[
edit
]
The film holds a 59% approval rating on
Rotten Tomatoes
, based on 34 reviews.
[4]
In his review for
The New York Times
,
Stephen Holden
described the film as "a Hollywood rarity, a movie about an icy grown-up heart-warmed by a child that doesn't wield emotional pliers to try to squeeze out tears…. It is a tribute to Mr. Branagh's considerable comic skills that he succeeds in making a potentially insufferable character likable by infusing him with the same sly charm that
Michael Caine
musters to seduce us into cozying up to his sleazier alter egos…. Mr. Kalesniko's satirically barbed screenplay, whose spirit harks back to the comic heyday of
Blake Edwards
, stirs up an insistent verbal energy that rarely flags."
[5]
Owen Gleiberman
of
Entertainment Weekly
gave the movie a B and said, "Branagh, in his most forceful non-
Shakespeare
screen performance, grounds even the softest moments in the angry revolt of his wit."
[6]
Justine Elias of
The Village Voice
stated it was "slight but unendurable…its fractured time frame gets confusing".
[7]
The film was the closing night film at the
2000 Toronto International Film Festival
and won multiple festival awards.
[2]
[8]
It was released as
Mad Dogs and Englishmen
in Australia.
[9]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog - TIFF Press Conference"
.
www.branaghcompendium.com
. Retrieved
July 5,
2020
.
- ^
a
b
Kilday, Gregg (September 10, 2021).
"Toronto Flashback: Kenneth Branagh Revealed His Lighter Side in 2000"
.
The Hollywood Reporter
. Retrieved
October 6,
2022
.
- ^
"How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog (2000)"
.
Box Office Mojo
. Retrieved
October 6,
2022
.
- ^
"How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog (2002)"
. Rotten Tomatoes
. Retrieved
July 5,
2020
.
- ^
Holden, Stephen
(February 22, 2002).
"Film Review; A Tale of 2 Neighbors, Both Pains in the Neck"
.
The New York Times
. Retrieved
June 19,
2016
.
- ^
Gleiberman, Owen
(February 15, 2002).
"How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog"
.
Entertainment Weekly
. Retrieved
June 19,
2016
.
- ^
Elias, Justine (February 19, 2002).
"Criminal Mischief"
.
The Village Voice
. New York
. Retrieved
June 19,
2016
.
- ^
"How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog"
.
Turner Classic Movie Database
. Retrieved
October 6,
2022
.
- ^
"Mad Dogs and Englishmen DVD"
. Retrieved
October 6,
2022
.
External links
[
edit
]