Overly quirky writing is, typically, the Achilles heel of your garden variety indie character study. The Dogwalker threatens to plod that path but, happily, writer-director Paul Duran is smart enough to imbue his odd characters with a great deal of heart. He was also lucky to be gifted with a superb cast. Will Stewart plays Jerry, a down and out hustler who lucks into a job taking care of cranky invalid Alma(Carol Gustafson) and her dog Lucky. He decides to rob the old lady one night with the assistance of his equally desperate friends (Tony Todd, Cress Williams, and Walter Jones), but when they stumble into Alma's senior citizen bridge party their plans change and they instead become part of the card playing circle. Soon their lives become intertwined, with Jerry carrying on an affair with Alma's cold daughter (Stepfanie Kramer), Tony Todd's character becoming a defacto caretaker for elderly bridge partner Ike (John Randolph), and the whole group chipping in to fix up the garden for $7.50 an hour and a case of beer. At the heart of the film is Todd's superb performance as Vietnam vet junkie Mones--Todd is, quite simply, one of the finest underutilized actors in the country, and his work here is worth the price of admission (or rental) alone. Gustafson is also fine as cranky Alma, and Kramer exudes erotic energy as the pretentious and grasping Helene.The film takes some unusual and daring steps as it nears its end, but it never rings false. It's also not for everyone--there's a lot of shooting up in the film, and it doesn't make apologies for its characters' weaknesses--but The Dogwalker is a surprising, unusual, and at times quite moving little film.
10 Reviews
It had some pretty good moments.
dreamnwish2 September 2005
Warning: Spoilers
I thought the movie was pretty good, and that the total mix match of actors and characters worked great.
The two totally different sets of "friends" found that they could actually get along and help each other some way, which was a surprise to me.
The common interest was drugs, but somewhat of a new friendship was made between a couple; although ending in tragedy for some.
I thought Stepfanie Kramer did a wonderful job with her character.
On "Hunter", she's known as The Brass Cupcake, but there was nothing cake-like about her in this role. Nothing but brass.
BTW - The music --- fantastic! I'd love to have a CD of those tracks.
The two totally different sets of "friends" found that they could actually get along and help each other some way, which was a surprise to me.
The common interest was drugs, but somewhat of a new friendship was made between a couple; although ending in tragedy for some.
I thought Stepfanie Kramer did a wonderful job with her character.
On "Hunter", she's known as The Brass Cupcake, but there was nothing cake-like about her in this role. Nothing but brass.
BTW - The music --- fantastic! I'd love to have a CD of those tracks.
Avoid at all costs.
eli_kaufman28 February 2004
My god this film was awful.
I would bet my left arm that everyone who made positive comments was a shill for the film company.
Poor acting, sluggish pace, insipid dialog, and that's just when it's good.
The characters are as deep as the a puddle on a sidewalk and equally boring.
I can say that is competently lit though the camera moves are frequently.
Avoid at all costs, you'll never get that time back.
No wonder it took 5 years for this movie to come out.
I would bet my left arm that everyone who made positive comments was a shill for the film company.
Poor acting, sluggish pace, insipid dialog, and that's just when it's good.
The characters are as deep as the a puddle on a sidewalk and equally boring.
I can say that is competently lit though the camera moves are frequently.
Avoid at all costs, you'll never get that time back.
No wonder it took 5 years for this movie to come out.
A sleeper worth waking up for!
sinuous913 September 2002
I'd have to say it was the cast of characters that reeled me in.
Will Stewart as Jerry is flawless--I've never liked such an unlikeable character. One forgets he's not such a good guy because the actor has charisma without working it. The performances down the line were unique and authentic--a couple over the top, but overall, fun. The friendships of the young African-Americans and the Senior Citizen crew, with Jerry as their catalyst, was not only hilarious, but the freshest mix I've seen on screen in a long time. The Dogwalker is a quirky comedy mixed with a dark integrity---the movie reminds me of that famous Sinatra quote, "Whatever gets you through the night." That's what the struggle is for each character in The Dogwalker, and it's what created the unity of the cast.
Will Stewart as Jerry is flawless--I've never liked such an unlikeable character. One forgets he's not such a good guy because the actor has charisma without working it. The performances down the line were unique and authentic--a couple over the top, but overall, fun. The friendships of the young African-Americans and the Senior Citizen crew, with Jerry as their catalyst, was not only hilarious, but the freshest mix I've seen on screen in a long time. The Dogwalker is a quirky comedy mixed with a dark integrity---the movie reminds me of that famous Sinatra quote, "Whatever gets you through the night." That's what the struggle is for each character in The Dogwalker, and it's what created the unity of the cast.
Good characters & acting, but the slow story will make you regret watching it.
GoodMonkey18 January 2005
I watched this flick because TiVo's guide gave it 3 stars, and because the initial characters seemed fresh and interesting. While the most of the characters managed to remain surprisingly rich throughout the movie, the dragging story suffocates the movie experience.
This indie movie may have been made for only $500,000, but that doesn't excuse the slow pace and drifting plot, even if Cameron Crowe thinks it's memorable.
The second-most identifiable problem, after the weak story, is the main character. The actor does a solid job, no fault there. Really, Will Stewart is good. Unfortunately, the character is supposed to be a likable bad-boy, but his unlikable acts include drugs, taking advantage of old people, and leaving an underage girl in a motel room with a druggie friend. His charisma is noteworthy, but I still didn't care about him.
Maybe this movie is stuck in limbo between an R rating and PG-13. Related to this, when the sexual tension between the main character and the mother does pay-off (after having been seemingly forgotten), the event is dull and not as quirky as the music and choreographing seem to imply. The flexibility offered by a solid R-rating might have made this a better flick.
You might like Paul Duran's The Dogwalker if you think drugs are an acceptable way to "take away the pain" of life, and if you loved David Lynch's Mulholland Drive. But even then, no ... just re-watch Mulholland Dr. and struggle to wrap your brain around that story.
This indie movie may have been made for only $500,000, but that doesn't excuse the slow pace and drifting plot, even if Cameron Crowe thinks it's memorable.
The second-most identifiable problem, after the weak story, is the main character. The actor does a solid job, no fault there. Really, Will Stewart is good. Unfortunately, the character is supposed to be a likable bad-boy, but his unlikable acts include drugs, taking advantage of old people, and leaving an underage girl in a motel room with a druggie friend. His charisma is noteworthy, but I still didn't care about him.
Maybe this movie is stuck in limbo between an R rating and PG-13. Related to this, when the sexual tension between the main character and the mother does pay-off (after having been seemingly forgotten), the event is dull and not as quirky as the music and choreographing seem to imply. The flexibility offered by a solid R-rating might have made this a better flick.
You might like Paul Duran's The Dogwalker if you think drugs are an acceptable way to "take away the pain" of life, and if you loved David Lynch's Mulholland Drive. But even then, no ... just re-watch Mulholland Dr. and struggle to wrap your brain around that story.
Walk with him, talk with him, just don't trust him
hollywired19 September 2002
I read a review of THE DOGWALKER where it said the lead only has a close relationship with the dog in the movie--and I thought that sounded like every guy I've hooked up with!
So I had to see it, and of course, he was like every dude in LA--hot, sexy, and couldn't care less about anyone. Dead on!
I love this movie, it has charm and insight--and exposed the truth about people--where most movies fail to show this--people don't change.
So I had to see it, and of course, he was like every dude in LA--hot, sexy, and couldn't care less about anyone. Dead on!
I love this movie, it has charm and insight--and exposed the truth about people--where most movies fail to show this--people don't change.
Was this film made to fulfill some court-ordered community service?
MBunge1 August 2010
Warning: Spoilers
If you squint really hard at this film you can just barely make out the impression of a story that might have made a mediocre episode of the old TV shows "Touched by an Angel" or "Highway to Heaven". You have to squint really hard because writer/director Paul Duran's paint-by-numbers approach to plotting, soap opera-ish dialog and zombified direction has sucked all the comedy, drama and intelligence out of this production like an atomic powered vacuum cleaner. This movie is so flat, it practically folds in on itself to exist in a dimension with neither depth nor height. Duran is a disaster as a storyteller, but perhaps he has a future in mono-dimensional physics.
Jerry (Will Stewart) is the best dressed and best coiffed homeless guy in Los Angeles. He has two homeless buddies; a drug dealer named Mones (Tony Todd) and a vagrant mechanic named K.C. (Cress Williams). After reluctantly helping an old lady (Carol Gustafson) who faints on the street, Jerry gets hired by her daughter (Stepfanie Kramer) to be the old lady's dogwalker and totally untrained nursemaid. Since it offers him a place to sleep other than his broken down car, Jerry accepts. His first idea is for he and his buddies to rob the old lady one evening, but find she's playing bridge with her equally aged friends. Somehow, the senior citizens and gutter scum become bosom companions. Oh, Jerry also has sex with the old lady's daughter and gets tempted and teased by her Lolita of a granddaughter (Nicki Aycox). Some stupid plotting leads to some terrible overacting and Jerry's new life falls apart. Then the old lady dies, which somehow leads to Jerry getting another chance at a better life and then that falls apart within about 3 minutes. The end.
As I mentioned, you can sorta see the basics of a feel good story about second chances and transgenerational friendship crawling through the desert that is The Dogwalker. However, even that meager outline dies of thirst and exposure before the film is halfway over. There is neither a drop of humor to sustain these characters nor any dramatic structure in which they can shelter. I'm not sure I've ever seen anything quite like this before. I've watched a lot of movies that have tried and failed, both miserably and spectacularly. Here, it's like writer/director Duran isn't even trying, as though he was forced to make this film against his will and feebly offered up the most half-hearted effort imaginable to fulfill his required task. None of these characters are appealing. Nothing that happens in the story is interesting. There is no point or moral to the story. There's just nothing here.
That's epitomized by the performance of Will Stewart as Jerry. Now, it is possible that Stewart isn't as vacuous an actor as he appears to be in this film. Perhaps his director simply told him to play the character as a stoic douchebag and Stewart followed those instructions to the letter. It's either that or Stewart just plain sucks. I'm leaning toward sucks because I'd be shocked if Paul Duran knew what the word stoic means.
The Dogwalker is a long, boring slog that leads to empty disappointment. It's not even entertainingly bad, merely thin, lifeless and dull. Only aesthetic masochists should bother with this movie.
Jerry (Will Stewart) is the best dressed and best coiffed homeless guy in Los Angeles. He has two homeless buddies; a drug dealer named Mones (Tony Todd) and a vagrant mechanic named K.C. (Cress Williams). After reluctantly helping an old lady (Carol Gustafson) who faints on the street, Jerry gets hired by her daughter (Stepfanie Kramer) to be the old lady's dogwalker and totally untrained nursemaid. Since it offers him a place to sleep other than his broken down car, Jerry accepts. His first idea is for he and his buddies to rob the old lady one evening, but find she's playing bridge with her equally aged friends. Somehow, the senior citizens and gutter scum become bosom companions. Oh, Jerry also has sex with the old lady's daughter and gets tempted and teased by her Lolita of a granddaughter (Nicki Aycox). Some stupid plotting leads to some terrible overacting and Jerry's new life falls apart. Then the old lady dies, which somehow leads to Jerry getting another chance at a better life and then that falls apart within about 3 minutes. The end.
As I mentioned, you can sorta see the basics of a feel good story about second chances and transgenerational friendship crawling through the desert that is The Dogwalker. However, even that meager outline dies of thirst and exposure before the film is halfway over. There is neither a drop of humor to sustain these characters nor any dramatic structure in which they can shelter. I'm not sure I've ever seen anything quite like this before. I've watched a lot of movies that have tried and failed, both miserably and spectacularly. Here, it's like writer/director Duran isn't even trying, as though he was forced to make this film against his will and feebly offered up the most half-hearted effort imaginable to fulfill his required task. None of these characters are appealing. Nothing that happens in the story is interesting. There is no point or moral to the story. There's just nothing here.
That's epitomized by the performance of Will Stewart as Jerry. Now, it is possible that Stewart isn't as vacuous an actor as he appears to be in this film. Perhaps his director simply told him to play the character as a stoic douchebag and Stewart followed those instructions to the letter. It's either that or Stewart just plain sucks. I'm leaning toward sucks because I'd be shocked if Paul Duran knew what the word stoic means.
The Dogwalker is a long, boring slog that leads to empty disappointment. It's not even entertainingly bad, merely thin, lifeless and dull. Only aesthetic masochists should bother with this movie.
I hope that life isn't really like this
misterlei19 December 2007
My problem with this movie is that it is amoral. I think that any representation of reality should contain an uplifting moral for life, and i think that is an important function of art.
This movie is genuinely funny in parts, but is racist, sexist and in many other respects stereotypical. There is the desperate housewife, the dumb, emotionally-absent husband more interested in playing golf than in his family, the sexually-precocious daughter, the cantankerous mother; and the racial stereotypes placed upon Gerry's three African-American friends are disappointing, as is their involvement with the drug culture. I don't like to think that ordinary people are so shallow as to be deceitful, lying, perfidious, and that drugs are so everyday a part of existence.
Throughout the movie the African-American characters are never more than companions for somebody else, and fail to present desirable social role models.
I'm sure the director would say that there is an overall message of the movie; that is that there is no morality in life. Relationships are short-lived and you just make do with things you've got. So perhaps this movie is realistic, but as i say i hope it isn't; and even then, i don't believe that should be the point of art.
For that reason i give it an 8 out of 10 - it does not shy away from depicting people as they really are, and it is genuinely funny in places, and in fact it is a memorable movie to watch. The only genuine characters are the dog Lucky and Gerry, the drifter. Perhaps that is what the director intended.
This movie is genuinely funny in parts, but is racist, sexist and in many other respects stereotypical. There is the desperate housewife, the dumb, emotionally-absent husband more interested in playing golf than in his family, the sexually-precocious daughter, the cantankerous mother; and the racial stereotypes placed upon Gerry's three African-American friends are disappointing, as is their involvement with the drug culture. I don't like to think that ordinary people are so shallow as to be deceitful, lying, perfidious, and that drugs are so everyday a part of existence.
Throughout the movie the African-American characters are never more than companions for somebody else, and fail to present desirable social role models.
I'm sure the director would say that there is an overall message of the movie; that is that there is no morality in life. Relationships are short-lived and you just make do with things you've got. So perhaps this movie is realistic, but as i say i hope it isn't; and even then, i don't believe that should be the point of art.
For that reason i give it an 8 out of 10 - it does not shy away from depicting people as they really are, and it is genuinely funny in places, and in fact it is a memorable movie to watch. The only genuine characters are the dog Lucky and Gerry, the drifter. Perhaps that is what the director intended.
I enjoyed the character driven aspects.
arich1213630 October 2002
Twists, humor, and a good plot... should've made the main theatres!
DB104116 February 2002
I saw this movie with a friend at the 2000 Palm Springs International Film Festival in early 2000. The biggest thing I remember about it was that it was quite enjoyable from beginning to end- I had no real lapses in interest. A good cast (some of whom were on hand to talk after the viewing) with well-played parts. It's a story about a hard-up slacker who finds a "job" walking an old lady's dog. Little did he know that he was getting into a complex, often humorous, sometimes dangerous web of relationships with the woman's family. If I remember correctly, he become's the family's cook, cleaner, and errand-boy, not to mention the object of the sultry teenage granddaughter's (?) desires. If given the chance, I would definitely see it again.
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