DOGGIEWOGGIEZ! POOCHIEWOOCHIEZ!

Directors: Commodore Gilgamesh and Ghould Skool.

Rating: 4.5/5

As difficult as it is to interpret surrealist iconoclast Alejandro Jodorowsky’s 1973 freak-out The Holy Mountain, it is a walk in the park when compared to the bizarre, often hilarious vid-clip montage homage, Doggiewoogiez! Poochiewoochiez!.

The third feature from avant-garde American ‘comedic imagists’ Everything is Terrible! (EiT), this re-envisioning of the Chilean maestro’s filmic dreamscape consists entirely of dog footage compiled from hours of films featuring man’s best friend (including Man’s Best Friend, a 1993 sci-fi thriller starring Lance Henriksen).

Detractors will see nothing more than a gimmicky gag, but directors Commodore Gilgamesh and Ghoul Skool exhibit an extraordinary command of their craft. Having combed hundreds of hours of film (including 90’s cop/dog ‘classics’ K-9 and Turner and Hooch; Jon Voigt’s career lowpoint, The Karate Dog; Tim Allen’s The Shaggy DA and director Pier Paolo Passolini’s Salo, too name a few), documentaries (Australian audiences will recognize entertainer Su Cruikshank’s appearance from Mark Lewis’ 1990 film, The Wonderful World of Dogs) and television (Punky Brewster moppet Amy Foster sings with a puppy puppet in an excrutiating sequence), the EiT team then split-screen, white-noise, over-expose, photo-shop and re-dub much of the content to mimic Jodorowsky’s non-linear framework and reinterpret the spiritual core of his film.

It is a bold endeavour that is uproariously funny, but it also addresses the very nature of the centuries-old relationship between the human race and the canine world. There is an underlying thematic line that draws comparison between the bestial essence of dogs (a joyous embrace of a life spent eating, sleeping, shitting and fornicating) and how that appeals to mankind, a race that has used its intelligence to over-complicate is existence. It suggests that the bond we share with dogs symbolises our longing to live the purest of lives, however dark and difficult that may be at times (and Doggiewoggiez… does get very warped and weird on more than one occasion).

It is also fascinating to so deeply ponder the message of a film that uses some of the most ridiculous pop-culture moments ever mined from the VHS boom period. Gilgamesh and Skool (apparently, not their real names) find substance and new meaning in some of the most embarrassingly awful film content of the last three decades. Like fellow contemporary ‘junk artists’ such as trash-sculptor HA Schult and garbage-dump visionary Vik Muniz (subject of the film, Wasteland), EiT craft an artistic message made from, in this case, the dire remnants of lowbrow video inanity.    

It is a terrible shame that such intellectualising will be too great a stretch for some, who will find the film too indulgent and incomprehensible (even over its scant 55 minute running time). The Everything is Terrible! unit are masters of video-image artistry and Doggiewoogiez! Poochiewoochiez! is a thrilling work that bridges the gap; not only between baffling gallery installation and cinematic giggle, but mankind and his most faithful companion. I think Jodorowsky would have loved it.

Doggiewoggiez! Poochiewoochiez! will be presented by The Golden Age Cinema in Sydney as a one-off Special Event screening at 6.00pm on January 12. Tickets are available at the website.