This satire by Andrei Hutuleac wants to address dysfunctions of modern (Romanian) society, transfixed in its obsession with scandals and its deformed perception of justice and how these have been galvanized by internet culture.
Clearly, these are valid observations, that have been made many a time; often, without being memorably incisive, but on occasion with some flair. Radu Jude’s 2021 movie that I can’t name on IMDb because my review won’t be published is an example of the latter, but it feels crass to even mention it here.
#dogpoopgirl turns out as an opaque X-ray of no real value, that at best is unfunny and at worst is tasteless. The state of the nation is, indeed, more tragic than comic, but in order to successfully portray that in a movie, you can’t just recreate familiar news reels and dump on a contourless lead. That’s in spite of Andreea Gramosteanu’s performance, which offers some dignity when her character has none.
The movie simply doesn’t have a clear sense of where it wants to sit in relation to its (sketch) characters, which means I couldn’t engage with it as either a comedy or a drama.
I do think back at a comment Simon Blackwell (The Thick of It, In the Loop) made about where comedy resided in their political satire and how that changed after 2016: “There was the facade of competent government and the madness that happens behind that and there was a gap between those two things where we found the comedy. But then the facade fell away”. It’s this strange space that’s equally hard to find in social satire.
All things said, perhaps I’m being harsh – had this been a short, consisting of the intro/outro sequences, it would have almost worked. As it stands, though, even at a measly 78 minutes, this movie is an hour too long.
P.S. Nice poster though.
tributary stu 