Dog Bites Man (2023)

After being threatened by a dog with a killer instinct, a painter and a poet from the City (Evo and Darm ) are trapped for the night in their rented farmhouse after their neighbor and/or other locals appear to have declared war on them. Throughout the night, Evo and Darm cope by painting, writing, overeating, and playing the piano interspersed with comedic bickering, verbal high-jinks, and bingeing on frozen yogurt and ice cream, all of which are juxtaposed with moments of violence, hatred, homicidal barking, and the possibility of no sleep or death. A thoughtful, flippant commentary on America's bigotry, divisions, and food choices, this gripping tale is filled with symbolism and hidden meanings and distills the divisions in this country down to Evo and Darm and shows how quickly it can become us vs them. As soon as the real or imaginary war starts, the two men begin brainstorming the reasons behind it, and a series of binaries are immediately created: city vs village, educated vs uneducated, good ole boys vs city slickers, normal vs different, dogs vs art, strawberry fudge ripple vs chocolate almond. Quickly, these divisions turn into fear, loss of appetite, and increased pulse rates, which, in turn, turn into cruelty, door-pounding, and bared fangs, which may lead to a new civil war or maybe even WWIII. In the end, the two men show themselves prepared to pay back in kind the wounds, insults, and middle fingers that they have received, thus leading a never-ending cycle of prejudice, shot birds, and mudslinging, a situation that rings true to our national politics and climate warfare.