Dogman (2018) Film 4, Channel 4, written and directed by Matteo Garrone.

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/dogman

Matteo Garrone's crime thriller is factional story and morality play. It won a stack of awards at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival. Earned Garrone the Nastro d'Argento awards for both Best Director and Best Producer. I wonder which film won the best writer award because Dogman would be hard to beat.

Marcello Fonte’s performance as Marcello won him Best Actor at Cannes. He inhabits the role of Dogman. A man that loves dogs of every shape and size. He makes a living caring for them in a run-down Italian seaside resort. It pays the bills. But he makes a little extra by selling cocaine. That allows him to take his daughter from his estranged wife away for scuba trips.

Marcello is well liked, but the whipping boy, among other small-town business owners trying to make a living. They all face a similar plague.

He’s called Simoncino (Edoardo Pesce). A violent ex-boxer who steals and extorts, who’s only thought is for himself.

They are unsure how to handle Simoncino. A proposal to have him taken care of (killed) is put on the table. The best plan of action they decide is wait-and-see. Thugs like Simoncino either end up in prison or dead they decide.

Marcello unlike them is friendly to everyone, including  Simoncino. He treats him as a friend. Someone he looks up to, literally. Simoncino is twice his size and twice as broad.

He treats Marcello as an absurd nothing to be used. He can call on to get free lines of cocaine and drive him in his rickety van to and from houses he’s going to rob.

Simoncino takes for granted Marcello will do what he’s told. But then he pushes him too far. Asks too much.  

Marcello pays the price. He loses everything. Yet…?

Unleash the Beastie! https://bit.ly/bannkie