LouHomey From my favorite movies..

Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Rich Wright Lawn Dogs tells the story of an intelligent but aloof little girl (Mischa Barton) who finds it hard to make friends...and with her habits of baking gingerbread men with dead flies for buttons, and peeing on the windshield of anyone who upsets her, it's not surprising.Eventually, she does find a sort-of kindred spirit... in the form of a bloke (Sam Rockwell) who mows lawns for a living, and resides far away from the posh neighbourhood where he works in a dilapidated caravan. They come from completely different backgrounds... her family are pretentious, smug, social climbers, whereas he is just content with the shirt on his back, and an honest day's pay... as well the occasional skinny dip in the middle of traffic.But they find each other, and both being misunderstood misfits who strive to escape the conformity of modern society (wow, that was a mouthful) they become fast friends. They kill chickens together, moon passing police officers... and show off their awesome scars. But a platonic relationship between a couple of individuals with such a huge age difference, AND of the opposite sex is always going to raise a few eyebrows... and it isn't long before a bunch of paranoid snobs is organising a posse...The reasons I love this film are numerous, but they include: An incredibly well written central duo with truly original personalities, an unconventional story which never ceases to be less than gripping, the many directorial flourishes that are apparent from the beginning, and the wonderful usage of fairy story imagery they manage to synch seamlessly into proceedings. It's not very often you come across a film as brave and poetic as this, but when you do, cherish it. I intend to... 9/10

Robert J. Maxwell This weird and improbable tale opens with a splendid overview of a newly built, upscale, gated community called Camelot, with over-sized houses miles and miles of sprinkled lawns, spotless curving streets, no trees, and a watchful guard packing a side arm. It's a phantasmagorically revolting panorama of modern life.I watched it chiefly because I'd understood that Angie Harmon has a nude scene, and so she does, but it only lasts a second and she's on screen for less than five minutes.But I was enthralled by the fey narrative that followed that bleak opening. The families are all bourgeois in their values as well as their life styles. But it's rather like "Blue Velvet" in that there are a horde of repugnant beetles and ants under all that Kentucky bluegrass that Sam Rockwell, the young and sweaty lawn man mows.The story is told principally from the point of view of ten-year-old Mischa Barton. She's magnetic. She not the kind of stunning young beauty that arouses the pedophile in every normal man. I mean, she's not Brooke Shields. But she gives a wholly natural performance, despite the sometimes fairy tale dialog that the writers have stuck her with.Barton befriends the modest, poor lawn man, Rockwell, for reasons that aren't immediately discernible. Rockwell looks the part of a poverty stricken working man. He wears sweaty clothes and lives in a tumble-down trailer somewhere in the woods. But the role he plays is constrained by his acting style. He slouches around like James Dean, and he's what some directors call, well, a "dung kicker actor," in that he seems so often to be staring down at his shoes, as if prodding a cow flop with the toe of his dirty boot. The growing bond between Rockwell and Barton is the essence of the plot and it doesn't quite clear the bar. Barton manages to convey the desperation behind her attraction, but Rockwell too often seems indifferent and even hostile. It's not entirely his fault. The script doesn't help. See "Sundays and Cybele" if you can, for an example of how to get this subtle kind of message across without weakening it.The rest of the cast is adequate but stereotyped. Barton's immaculate father takes advantage of a chance to humiliate his gardener, and he's given to jumping to faddish conclusions. Kathleen Quinlan, a fine actress, is enclosed in the iron maiden role of nervous and hypocritical mother, who allows one of the local studs to gobble her up while she prepares a salad for the back yard barbecue. Two of the local studs appear periodically to ridicule Rockwell and do Quinlan when Dad isn't around. One of them owns a hostile Doberman that attacks Rockwell, who later beats to death for insufficient reasons. I'm not sure whether the canicide was intended to show that, like everyone else, Rockwell is imperfect, or whether it was a plot device to drive Barton and Rockwell away from one another for a while. At its climax, the film falls apart.Barton is given to telling others the story of a witch, the imaginary Baba Yaga. She's not making it up. I don't know where a ten year old living on No Problem Drive in bone-dry Camelot Gardens got it, but it's an old Russian folk tale, complete with the magic comb and towel that saves the fleeing innocent victim. There are lots of versions and they're widespread throughout Europe and Asia. It's been written in Sanskrit, and it's one of the few tales that made the jump across the Siberian land bridge with the American Indians, if I remember correctly.The writers have done some research, but the movie fails to cohere, despite some gripping scenes and despite the stellar performance of young Mischa Barton, who grew up to be ravishing and problem ridden. At that, though, its deliberate pace and thoughtful camera work and editing are a vast improvement over the parade of junk now coming out of a decadent Hollywood.

tieman64 "Edward Scissorhands" with added pretence, "Lawn Dogs" finds Mischa Barton playing a young girl who moves into the affluent Kentucky neighbourhood of Camelot Gardens. Director John Duigan paints this gated community, with its big houses and immaculate lawns, as a throng of smug, conceited white folk, all of whom bully, fear, exploit and prey on those too poor to live within Camelot's exclusive walls. Feeling such wrath is Trent Burns, played by Sam Rockwell, a gardener who, because he is a working class stiff, is accused of crimes, paedophilia, and subjected to much bullying."Lawn Dogs" is smooth and well acted whenever Barton and Rockwell are on screen, but many caricatures and buffoonish scenes of violence designed to push us into sympathising with Rockwell rob the film of all nuance. Duigan's aiming for "magic realism", a fairy tale plot with enchanted forests, red riding hoods, castle-like buildings and ghoulish villains, but can't quite pull it off. Still, Rockwell is always worth a watch.The film's attempts at "class warfare" range from affecting to downright insulting. While it is true that the poor are routinely scapegoated, marginalised, blamed for society's ills, ignored by the media (unless being depicted as parasitic "welfare bums") and viewed by the middle class with a mixture of fear and hatred, the film paints with such broad brush-strokes that the complexities of these issues are bulldozed. Instead the film plays like "The Elephant Man", goading us into crying over bullied outsiders.Bizarrely, the film's twin narrative arcs "contradict" one another. Barton goes through your standard "death of innocence" journey (she essentially sheds her childhood), whilst Rockwell is designed to engender audience wish fulfilment, magically being "liberated" from conditions which would ordinarily crush him in real life. Few "magic realism" films so literally collide fantasy/optimism (the adult) with realism/pessimism (in this case, localized in the child).7.9/10 – Worth one viewing.

andyduk01 This film is a definite must see. Whilst portraying a look at America's middle class society but still providing a sense of realism, and a mixture of black comic moments between leads Mischa Barton and Sam Rockwell against a darker tone of the uneasiness of the residents towards these lower class workers. Its a slow and delicate build up as the two characters friendship grows but ends with one of the most tense and exciting scenes you are likely to see. Mischa Barton as you have most likely read from other reviews is outstanding with acting that rivals all of her OC performances put together. Although i think this film was slightly ruined by the final scene, it is easily one of my favourite films and one you certainly wont forget