Hangdog

After a move to Portland, Maine, Walt (Desmin Borges, TV's 'You're the Worst') is still trying to find his artistic niche as his supportive girlfriend Wendy's (Kelly O'Sullivan, "Saint Francis") new app is taking off. When she has to leave for a three day business trip to New York City, Walt will be left to care for the love of her life, her rescue dog Tony (Mr. Tibbs), but when he ties the dog to a pole to buy a joint in a pot shop, Tony is stolen and Walt becomes desperately "Hangdog."
Laura's Review: A-
Director/editor Matt Cascella and writer Jen Cordery, his wife, mined their own personal experiences for one of the best feature filmmaking debuts of the year. This thoroughly charming film features an extraordinary ensemble cast, all the people Walt meets during his multi-day adventure, from the pot shop clerk (Wesleigh Sterrs) to his new next door neighbor Marianne (Barbara Rosenblat, TV's 'Better Call Saul') making indelible impressions. Portland locations are distinctive, adding character to the film.
Settling in for their first night in their new apartment, Walt is dismayed to see Wendy cuddling up with Tony after having promised to ween the adorable terrier into his own bed. Calling the dog a 'permanent cock block,' Walt will awaken the next day to Tony cleaning his nether regions in front of his face. The couple take the dog for a walk by the seashore, where Wendy gathers with other dog walkers while Walt stands off in a distance, observing a scene which includes an eccentric middle-aged woman in a wetsuit who dances along the shoreline whooping away.
'Who loves you more than I do?' Walt asks Wendy as she prepares to drive off for her trip. 'Tony,' she replies, reminding him to buy dog food. It's on that errand that Walt stops in at the pot shop, his contradictory requirements amusing, but it is his anxiety on full display when he reenters screaming 'Call 911!,' assuring the clerk that this is the direst of emergencies. After searching around downtown, a dejected Walt returns home and puts his graphic skills to work, designing a missing poster offering a reward that he plasters around the city. He draws the attention of Marianne while out in his backyard, the woman inviting him upstairs to her back porch for a beer. He confesses his dilemma. 'You're screwed,' she observes, before asking him if he'd like to see her outhouse. Heading to a downstairs workshop, she'll put Walt to work sanding down tiny pieces of the miniatures she constructs, the two enjoying amiable silence.
Walt's adventures will include a job interview at a mussel processing plant where he is pinpointed as a bad match and include bizarre phone calls responding to his flyer, one of which leads him to fifteen year-old Mikey (Nicholas Zoto, "The Kitchen"), who scams him out of a grand and the engagement ring he'd planned to give to Wendy. Luckily he'll also run into Brent (Steve Coulter, "Oppenheimer") looking for help transporting a kayak and after several rounds of bourbon, when Walt relays that Mikey said he was going to sell his dog to someone named Buffy (Catherine Curtin, "Saturday Night"), it turns out Brent knows them both.
While Toby's loss drives the action, "Hangdog" is a film of self discovery as Walt finds a community, a path forward and learns to love Toby. The man who panicked when his girlfriend proposed, hoping to save him the anxiety, has all but disappeared by the end of the film. Borges, who personifies the title, illustrates a gradual gaining of confidence. Jay Dunigan ("Downeast") and Amy-Jane Mooney are also notable as Wendy's parents, neutral as their daughter steams upon her return, Walt's flyers alerting her to his lies. Cordery's script is extraordinary in its attention to character defining detail (Brent's revelation of how Pornhub cost him his livelihood tells a far richer story) and callbacks (a miniature wooden outhouse), her revelation at film's end of just who that woman in the wetsuit is is particularly satisfying.
Wisely, we don't get the tourist's view of Portland, instead real neighborhoods, downtown intersections and waterfront dog parks. Walter Martin's bouncy percussive score is another asset. With "Hangdog," Cascella has given us a real gem.
Robin's Review: B+
A man, Walt (Desmin Borges), and a woman, Wendy (Kelly O’Sullivan), live together. They have a dog, Tony (Mr. Tibbs), but the pup really belongs to her. She is leaving on a business trip and he is in charge of taking care of his canine ward. So, what can go wrong? As it turns out, everything, in “Hangdog.”
One could describe the story as “a man loses his girlfriend’s dog and frantically tries to find it before she returns,” and that would be a fair description. But, that does not tell about the ingenuity in making a routine story new, fresh and different.
Walt is not what you would call a “dog lover.” As a matter of fact he detests Tony and only tolerates him for Wendy. Now, she is heading to New York from their Portland home to give an important presentation. She leaves Walt in charge and kisses them both goodbye and reminds him to get dog food. Of course, he forgets.
He goes out, late, to get the forgotten food and, on the way home, stops at a pot shop to buy a blunt, tying Tony to a post outside. When he returns, the leash is there but the dog is gone. This begins Walt’s journey to find Tony before Wendy gets home. Director Matt Cascella tells his story and ramps up the tensions in a race against the clock.
There is more to the story than Walt’s frantic search for dognapped Tony. In his journey, he meets people, both good and not so good, and makes new friends. Walt also develops a remote affection for the missing dog and he will do anything ensure his safe return.
This is an assured work by director-editor-conscribe Matt Cascella and a good bit of storytelling with Desmin Borges giving Walt the titular hangdog look as he knows he really screwed up. He commits to his search for Tony and, along the way, makes the aforementioned friends, like his eccentric neighbor Marianne (Barbara Rosenblatt), who likes to dance on the beach in a wetsuit.
With a runtime of about 90 minutes, there is absolutely no waste in the storytelling and its execution. The characters, from Walt to Tony, and everyone in between, are all genuine, feeling like real people (and dog). And, the whole thing rings believable. Oh, and I like the ending.
"Good Deed Entertainment" releases "Hangdog" into select theaters (including MA's Somerville Theater on 10/16) before its digital debut on 10/25/24.