Todd Solondz’s Comedy Of Despair: “i Am Always Trying To Navigate A Line That Is Not Too Far, And Not Too Soft”

Read More... Keaton Nigel Cooke in "Weiner-Dog" (Credit: Amazon Studios) For more than two decades, writer/director Todd Solondz has been making audiences squirm with films designed to be discomfiting. His latest pitch-black comedy, “Wiener-Dog,” traces a dachshund as it is cared for by various characters including: Remi (Keaton Nigel Cook), a young cancer-riddled boy; Dawn Wiener (Greta Gerwig), an adult version of his “Welcome to the Dollhouse” protagonist; Dave Schmerz (Danny DeVito), a fading screenwriter/professor; and a cantankerous grandmother with a soft side (Ellen Burstyn). As one might expect from Solondz, the screenplay is full of darkly funny dialogue, most notably when Remi’s mother, Dina (Julie Delpy) tells her son a blackly comic tale about the suffering of her own childhood pet, Croissant.