BAXTER Movie Review

Baxter is a movie about a dog, but it will never play on a double bill with Beethoven. (Still, it would be fun to hear Charles Grodin ranting, outraged, about the decadent “values” of Baxter on his cable show.) Not for the kiddies, this dog is pure bad news. His thoughts—heard in deep, carefully pronounced French—are generally evil, least dangerous when they're simply voyeuristic observations, downright scary when they're more “pro-actively” homicidal. Baxter is jealous of human affection that may be diverted from him to other humans, but his response is less like a dissed Lassie than the Siamese cats who'd like to off the new baby in Lady and the Tramp. Baxter is obsessed with sex—human sex—and likes to look toward the window of a young couple, listening to their sounds through the fluttering curtains, speculating in his malevolently silky thought-voice about what they might be doing, and whether or not he approves. Generally, the human cast members of this shocking and original horror film are much better off when Baxter approves. We've seen the world from the point-of-view of animals before—it's a staple in kids’ movies like The Adventures of Milo and Otis and even in more celebrated pictures like Jean-Jacques Annaud's The Bear—and we've seen stories about killer bees, ants, gorillas, and dogs before as well. But no one has thought of melding the two genres until this unnerving little picture by Jerome Boivin, and the effect is not unlike The Incredible Journey meets Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer—subversive, nasty fun.

NEXT STOP … Psycho, Monsieur Hire, Christine

1989 82m/C FR Lisa Delamare, jean Mercure, Jacques Spiesser, Catherine Ferran, Jean-Paul Roussillon, Sabrina Leurquin; D: Jerome Boivin; W: Jerome Boivin, Jacques Audiard; C: Yves Angelo; M: Marc Hillman, Patrick Roffe. VHS, LV FXL, PMS