Heart of a Dog

Laurie Anderson's Heart of a Dog is a heartfelt meditation on loss. There are certain critical assumptions when addressing a work by Ms. Anderson. Some are positive, her work displays a keen imagination and one can safely assume the musical contributions to this film were not an afterthought. Her work also displays a deadening chilliness and ironical detachment similar to what the late Paul Nelson noted in the works of Bowie and Kubrick. This aspect of her work is on display in Heart of a Dog when Anderson articulates the drift to a more authoritarian police state in the US since 9/11.

Happily, it is a fervent love that occupies the heart of this movie, made to commemorate Anderson's pooch, Lolabelle. The warmth of this film is what carries it over. Anderson employs a layered look for the film utilizing videos, stills, tons of drawings by the beloved canine, and various visual bric a brac. Anderson references everyone from Goya to Wittgenstein, but does not come off as a smarty pants this time because all 75 jam-packed minutes of this film are devoted to picturing a once living soul with warmth and humor. (3/27/17)