Dog Days

The oppressive heat virtually emanates from the screen in Seidl's Venice Film Festival-winning feature debut. Over several long, sweltering summer days, the film enters into the closed spaces of suburban Vienna as its characters wallow in their own and each other's misery, resentment and frustrated desire. Interspersed with nearly static shots of sunbathers which recall both Diane Arbus and Francis Bacon, Dog Days features an ensemble cast of professional and non-professional actors, all of whom contribute visceral performances to Seidl's bleak but brilliant chronicle of middle-class desperation and disconnection.