84
Metascore
20 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinNew York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinAnderson says that as a child she dreamed of making something that had never been made before, and, with the help of some gifted artists and editors and camera-people, she has done it again — with bells on. The only thing that would make it more pleasurable would be Anderson narrating it in person.
- 90The New York TimesManohla DargisThe New York TimesManohla DargisHeart of a Dog is about telling and remembering and forgetting, and how we put together the fragments that make up our lives — their flotsam and jetsam, highs and lows, meaningful and slight details, shrieking and weeping headline news.
- 88Slant MagazineClayton DillardSlant MagazineClayton DillardLaurie Anderson condenses contemporary, human experience to the point where exterior and interior are made indistinguishable from one another.
- 80VarietyJustin ChangVarietyJustin ChangWhile this alternately goofy, serious, lyrical and beguiling cine-essay serves primarily as a loving tribute to the memory of Anderson’s rat terrier, Lolabelle, its roving, free-associative structure brings together all manner of richly eccentric musings on the evasions of memory, the limitations of language and storytelling, the strangeness of life in a post-9/11 surveillance state, and the difficulty and necessity of coming to terms with death.
- 80Time OutJoshua RothkopfTime OutJoshua RothkopfIn combining video, surveillance footage and her own 8mm family memories, Heart of a Dog quickly accesses a realm of ideas that vault it far higher than mere sentiment would allow.
- Heart Of A Dog is at turns a haunting, hilarious, muddled, disparate, and deeply emotional film about a woman, her dog, their bond, and the deaths that continue that haunt her.
- 60The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyThe Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyFrom a sensory point of view, the film is a pleasure, the images having been manipulated in various ways to evocative effect, Anderson’s voiceovers proving more amusing than not, and the music taking mostly lively turns.
- 60Village VoiceNick SchagerVillage VoiceNick SchagerHer documentary sporadically locates profound truth amid its myriad musings about the momentous and the everyday. Often, however, Anderson's hushed-tone articulations of her thoughts on these subjects prove affected, and her stream-of-consciousness style, though acutely constructed, is more alienating than inviting.
- 40CineVueJohn BleasdaleCineVueJohn BleasdaleSome of it is funny. Some of it is moving. More of it is plain dull.