Lobo e Cão

I loooooooooove women with natural curly hair!

With that totally unneeded confession out of the way, there are certain types of movies that I absolutely love, and ones I know that most would not like at all. They would find these types of movies an absolute bore. WOLF & DOG is one such movie.

Why do I say this? Well, this movie is one of those silent movies. And by silent, I do not mean the early 1900s types of movies, I mean movies that they barely have background soundtracks. The only music in this movie is live music in a club or festive music sang by the locals or music from the player of the main character or at the party. Otherwise, the movie relies on natural sounds, and as it is one of those slice of life types of movies, the real kind I mean, it can seem very boring.

Depending on the subject, these are my bread and butter. I love taking my time watching movies like these because they demand your complete attention and I found that they are usually rewarding when you give them your undivided attention.

Wolf & Dog is one of those that were made for me, so much so that I believe I have seen this movie at least four times already.

 

 
 
 
 
 

Some might know what Wolf and Dog means, it’s the time between dark and light where you can hear wolves and dogs cry, where it’s not quite light but not quite dark. In this movie it’s used both literally and figuratively.

Figuratively, our main girls are at the precipice of adulthood, especially Ana who has a lot of ambition that she just couldn’t get in this place of the island. She is conflicted both in her emotions and how to handle them and her future goals, both of which are a cul-de-sac in this town.

She sees how her brother, a proud and out gay boy, being treated unfairly and eventually being forced to leave his hometown just so he could be himself with others like him and she just can’t put her family through that twice over!

But that is one of the things I love about this movie, or I should say about Ana and Cloé, our girls. They are so natural in their development that by the time we got to them making out, it was surprising in a good way. There was no spoon-feeding or teasing beforehand, but you saw the signs and felt that there would be something at some point in the future, you just didn’t know when.

When we got to that point, both of their feelings were mutual and easy to see, and you could easily feel their love. Even when they had to go their separate ways, with Cloé returning home to Canada, you knew that the separation would be difficult.

But we are jumping ahead.

As I mentioned this might feel like a very slow movie to some, like, Cloé does not show up until we are like, a quarter through the movie. We spend the earlier part getting used to Ana and her repetitive and boring routine and as we know, the more time you have on your hands, the more unwanted thoughts you have. We see her already beginning to have these otherworldly thoughts about her life and the world around her.

When Cloé shows up, some, if not all these thoughts are given form and very interestingly, all these thoughts come to bear fruit in the end.

First of these is that she wants to explore the world beyond this island that she has lived on all her life! That is partially because the culture is still rooted in the old ways, as I mentioned, them not taking kindly to Homos. She might have had a boyfriend before but she no longer in just straight as we come to see but in addition to that, there is literally nothing to do on that island other than farm and fish!

And then here came Cloé, travelling from Canada! A multi-cultured girl with open views and obviously very comfortable in her own skin. Would Ana feel like her were she to leave this place? What if they went and lived together out there in the Americas! Cloé and her mother coming to visit them gave form to her thoughts and cemented her resolve.

It was only Cloé though, one of her clients was a lady who managed the F&B department on of the cruises that came by the island and whenever Ana would deliver the goods, the lady would invite her to the ship to have a taste of that life, which also added to her desire to leave this place and that cruise was the best ticket out of there. She is sold when the lady mentions how she has multiple homes because she travels all over the world but in the end, home is with her in her heart and I am sure that having the thought of having a home in Canada with Cloé crossed her mind.

She ended up working on the cruise in the end and probably on her way to go to Cloé.

The other thought that bore fruit is, as she confesses to the priest, she wants things and wondered if wanting is a sin! Though she does not clarify what she wants, we know that she is talking about desire, seeing as she goes to the church the day after she played with the harp, if you know what I mean!

But at this moment I think she realised that she was kind of gay, because if she were straight, I doubt it would have bothered her that much. She couldn’t out right come out and say it to the priest for obvious reasons.

We see a bit of glimpse of it slipping out when she helps one of her friends put on her bra with the lingering stare but when Cloé comes into the picture, it’s drum rolls!

Maybe she did have a crush on her friend before, as they are childhood friends, well, their parents are so I imagine Ana and Cloé were by association.

They are very comfortable with each other, even if Ana is of course still a bit shy and Cloé quite loose, this of course because of their nurture. Like, this one time Cloé helps Ana deliver the goods to the cruise ship and they are again invited inside and they go to the main area with the bar and stage and there’s live music playing and Cloé wants to dance, she loves to dance you see, and totally show to Ana as we see at a different time, so she asks Ana to dance but Ana refuses to, though a lit later she does loosen up a little and shakes some shoulders as she joins Cloé.

While usually you would expect one of the parties to be a pusher and put the moves on the other, maybe the out-going Cloé showing the otherworldly experiences to the sheltered Ana, or maybe Ana having a major crush on this town girl, that would be the typical progress but not here.

No one makes the first move, no one is too obvious in their affections for the other, even if the movie is shot in a way to show us that it is Ana, but the movie is mostly in her point of view, so it is inevitable. When they get together, they do it together. When they make out, it is mutual.

They are equal in their feelings, and I love this so much about this movie!

They kiss twice but the weight of their kisses far outshines many a kiss I have seen before. They do kiss a lot in those two scenes but it’s more in the emotions behind those kisses that I am referring to!

There is no cheesy I love you but rather a simple question whether Cloé sees the world the same way that Ana does and interestingly, Cloé takes the same amount of time to answer as someone who just got confessed to would.

“Sometimes I can’t tell what is right and what is wrong. Do you feel the same way?”

It is such a sensible question but for some reason I was holding my breath as I awaited Cloé’s answer, because I knew that the answer would impact their relationship going forward. And damn that Cloé, she sure took her sweet time to answer.

“Yes”

Simple, but you could see how it affected Ana, because we were focused only on her features during this exchange. The second round of making out that followed that answer should tell you all that you need to know.

Their love was basically sealed in that moment.

There is one thing I am pissed at though, and it happens right after my kryptonite that is hand-sex! This is during the car ride to the airport when Cloé and her mother are returning to Canada.

Actually, before that, there is one thing this movie does that is so intelligent that I want to talk about, and that is telling what is happening by using something lese to describe it in the background. During this car ride, Ana and Cloé’s mothers are talking about separation and feelings that come with that, and we the audience are watching Ana and Cloé in the backseat, and we know that this conversation is about them and their relationship even as it has a bit to do with their mothers as well.

Another is using music to tell us what the characters are feelings, like the music Ana is listening to when her brother leaves to go and be with his friends. The song is literally describing her feelings.

I love this movie.

But back to the girls, they exchange some written notes in that back seat that we do not get to see! Ana hands Cloé a note in her hand, which she reads and then pulls out her journal to write something inside it.

We never get to see what this exchange is! We do not know what Ana wrote to Cloé or what Chlore wrote but I guess the writers want us to fill in the blanks and since we know they already love each other, like, they just were in them idle of having hand sex, this was no confession of love!

I am also pretty sure that it wasn’t a question that needed answering using written words, because, and I need to confirm this, I don’t remember seeing Ana read what Cloé writes in her diary. Yes, I am pretty sure she does not read it.

In that sense, I can only conclude that what Ana slipped Cloé was a promised date when she would be coming to see her in Canada and Cloé noted it down in her diary so she would remember it.

It is the only reason I could think of that would have Ana be secretive, especially since she hadn’t seemed the kind to that point in time. Also, it really put a smile on Cloé’s face, especially during their gloom of a goodbye.

That did not mean that Ana was not bummed still at Cloé’s departure. Girl spent a lot of time just watching planes and then next we see her she is sulking in her bed, for Lord knows how long, and the way her mother comforted her makes me think that she knew how Ana felt about Cloé.

I mean, their mother was pretty understanding as she was very supportive of Ana’s brother so maybe Ana did come out to her at some point.

Or maybe Ana was sad for a completely different reason, like maybe, being sad to leave her mother, her lovely younger brother and everyone else behind when she went travelling on cruises, cruises that maybe she would not return from.

This space left by movies for speculation and blanks to be filled in by the viewer, makes for very memorable movies as far as I am concerned and I love WOLF & DOG so much for this.

Anyway, recommend.

Ja