YMMV / Wiener-Dog

• Adorkable: Dawn doesn't have a single malicious bone in her body, though she does seem like a pushover most of the time.
• Alternative Character Interpretation: Remy's mother tells him about a dog she used to own when she was growing up in France that was raped by a rabid dog, which she explicitly refers to as "Muhammad". Given that Muslims consider it taboo to bestow the name of their prophet on a dog, this opens up a range of possibilities behind her words:
  • Remy's mother never had a dog and "Muhammad" was made up for the sake of telling a story.
  • "Muhammad" may have been owned by an Islamaphobe who neglected him, which means the whole story really was true.
  • The mother's dog was actually a female acquaintance who was raped by a man who was (or at least appeared to be) of the Islamic persuasion. Going further with this, Remy's mother may have been raped herself and copes by projecting the ordeal onto a dog.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
  • The intermission. Wiener-Dog wanders across some obviously green-screened backdrops such as the country side, the desert...the scene of an accident...the White House...a stripclub?
  • Nana's dream where she meets doppelgangers of her childhood self. It came out of nowhere, clashes with the realistic tone of the film and is shown so late in the story that it can't be expanded upon.
• Critical Dissonance: Critics for the most part liked it. Audiences, however, mostly hated it, mainly for what happens to said Wiener-Dog.
• Crosses the Line Twice: None of the funny moments in this film get by without being at least a little shocking.
• Nausea Fuel: After eating a piece of granola, Wiener-Dog has the nastiest case of diarrhea.
• Nightmare Fuel: The ending has Wiener-Dog run over repeatedly by cars on the street. An epilogue, taking place six months later, has an art gallery showcasing a wiener dog sculpture made from the dog's remains that unexpectedly moves, a la a "singing bass head", and barks. Just the way the head robotically moves to face the audience is soooo creepy.
• Questionable Casting: Few were convinced by Greta Gerwig and Kieran Culkin as Dawn and Brendan, respectively and many found them to be miscast.
• Squick: "I posed nude and spread my legs"
• Tear Jerker: There are a few tragic moments that aren't the setup for any dark jokes.
  • Remy having to give up Wiener-Dog. Anyone who has ever lost their childhood pet will know how sad it is.
  • Brendan trying to tell his developmentally-disabled brother that their father died of alcohol poisoning. It's hard to tell if the brother's inability to understand is due to his impairment of if he's in a state of denial.
  • Schmerz sitting in on a talk with a former student-turned-filmmaker. The filmmaker flat-out tells his audience that film school was a waste of time, picking out Schmerz' narrative philosophy as hack writing to the laughter of everyone but Schmerz himself.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: None of the characters have it particularly good (with the maybe exception of Dawn, who is MUCH better off than she was in middle school). Then again, it is a Todd Solondz film.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: If you don't find dark humour involving animals funny, this is really not the movie for you.

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