The Dog

Over a decade in the making, THE DOG is a relatively straightforward profile of John Wojtowicz, the infamous bank robber immortalized in DOG DAY AFTERNOON. Chiefly constructed around extended interviews with Wojtowicz, THE DOG benefits immensely from the man’s natural charisma. But the real star of the film is time. It’s not just that we witness both John and his mother Teresa as they become older and frailer, their minds and memories nevertheless remaining razor sharp; the fact of the matter is, Wojtowicz’s life choices were largely illegible to the millions of contemporaries who watched the bank heist unfold in 1972. (...)
But even more than a recoding of Wojtowicz’s past, THE DOG is fascinating for its illumination of who the man was during and after his incarceration. Again, historical distance allows Allison Berg and Frank Keraudren to shift the lens on “The Dog,” offering a look not at a celebrity criminal, but at the final years of an intelligent, working-class polysexual pioneer. (Michael Sicinski)