‘Dogtooth’: the modern movie David Lynch calls a “fantastic comedy”
Despite the often dark, brooding tone of his films, David Lynch is known for his subversive sense of humour, which occasionally rears its head in a number of strange ways throughout his filmography. Take the surreal baby in his 1977 debut Eraserhead or the tragi-comic character of Frank Booth in his 1986 masterpiece Blue Velvet, a criminal obsessed with dreamlike music and huffing nondescript gas.
More than any other project, comedy plays a considerable role in Lynch’s seminal ABC series Twin Peaks, a peculiar crime series that toys with the fabric of serialised drama. On the surface, Twin Peaks is a mere murder mystery crime story, but dig deeper, and you’ll discover an eerie exploration of a rural American town with a bounty of insidious secrets to hide.
From the mysterious coffee-loving Special Agent Dale Cooper to the peculiar Log Lady, who provides visions of the future with the help of a hefty chunk of wood she carries on her person, Lynch’s fictional town swells with good humour. A similar sense of humour can be seen in subsequent movies like 1997’s Lost Highway and his 2017 short film What Did Jack Do?, which tells the story of a police interview with a tormented monkey.
Famously tight-lipped about his cinematic inspirations, Lynch did reveal one of his favourite modern comedies in a 2012 interview with the LA Times. Any fan who was hoping for a straight answer from Lynch will be somewhat disappointed to discover that one of his favourite modern comedies is the disturbing drama Dogtooth from Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos, the same mind behind the 2018 Oscar-winner The Favourite.
Calling the torturous coming-of-age movie “a fantastic comedy”, we can’t say that we’re entirely surprised by Lynch’s curious pick. The film itself is far from a comedy, telling the story of a manipulative father who keeps his three adult offspring in a state of constant childhood whilst imprisoning them in their family home. Helping to put Lanthimos’ name on the industry radar, Dogtooth would represent the director’s first major cinematic success.
The tragic movie has a dark undercurrent of comedy running through it, but honestly, it’s so minuscule that one has to question whether Lanthimos put it in intentionally or whether you’ve got a really twisted sense of humour. Looking at the filmmaker’s later filmography, which includes such comedies as 2015’s The Lobster with Colin Farrell and 2018’s The Favourite with Olivia Colman, the existential humour of Dogtooth seems a little more likely.
Elsewhere in the interview, Lynch gave his opinion on another contemporary movie, this time from the modern cinematic master Terrence Malick. “Some people go nuts for Tree of Life,” the director stated, referencing the 2011 Oscar-nominated epic starring Brad Pitt, Jessica Chastain and Sean Penn. Lynch wasn’t as keen on the film as the general public, however, adding: “I love Terry Malick. But Tree of Life wasn’t my cup of tea,” when pressed why he didn’t like the film, he simply repeated, “It wasn’t my cup of tea”.
David Lynch is indeed an enigma, with his opinion on Yorgos Lanthimos’ Dogtooth doing nothing to help us solve his mysterious personality.
