Rodney
2016 · 10m · USA
Directed by Doron Max Hagay
Genres: comedy, experimental
Tones: absurdist, darkly comic, humorous
Mandy flies to L.A. to see her old friend Lisa, but every sightseeing detour gets hijacked by Lisa's monomaniacal devotion to her dog, Rodney. What should be a hang spirals into a stilted, deadpan endurance test of one-sided enthusiasm.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
Hagay traffics in the kind of conversational dead-air most directors edit out, then builds a whole movie around it. A dog-obsessed monologue as anti-plot? Yes please.
Hagay's stilted-delivery comedy of social attrition is a recognizable signature — Joanna-Arnow-meets-Jarmusch deadpan, and the dog-monomania premise is genuinely funny.
Hagay's stilted-delivery signature weaponized into comedy of social attrition — the one-sided dog monologue is a perfect engine for that voice. Tough sell if you don't already speak deadpan.
Reviews
For my money, he's one of the good ones