Really, Really Real Reality. Real.
Where to start... This film was my first experience with the Chicago Film Festival and needless to say, I was quite excited about it. Unfortunately I walked away with quite a bad taste in my mouth. Not only was I disappointed with the film, but I wondered why films like these are consistently chosen for film festivals to represent their countries.
What are "films like these"? Well, essentially they are films that aim to expose as much of the worst aspects of society as possible without any remorse for doing so or any redemptive qualities to save the experience. This attitude is all too pervasive in independent film--that the only antivenom for the glossy, silicone movies produced by Hollywood is the presentation of only the opposite end of the spectrum, i.e. everything not seen or censored in the major market, and to make the viewer as uncomfortable as possible in doing so. Perhaps even more frustrating is the fact that these contemptible characters and scenes are presented as though they are reality, a claim just as ridiculous as the fantasy "real" worlds created by Hollywood. Now, I will sit through a whole lot of uncomfortable scenes if I feel that in the end I will be able to take something from the film or that it makes a significant or original statement on a topic, but in this case, I feel like I walked away empty-handed.
This film is the famed (or so we were told) Austrian documentarian Ulrich Seidl's first attempt at fiction. In response to an interviewer's question claiming that he "merely enjoys showing scenes of humiliation and self-degradation in a voyeuristic manner," he says this: "I disgaree with that. Of course Hundstage tells about the hell people can put each other through, about loneliness and obsession, but more than that it tells about this 'cry for love' - as I call it, about the longing for love and for happiness and the inability to ever fulfill this desire" (via Artechock, translated by Dinka). In this sense, he does have a fair amount of success. Through the eyes of six people, he shows us the severe dysfunction and frustration of their lives in the "suburbs" of Vienna. In fact at least three of these characters are complicated and intriguing enough to keep the film on its feet, but ultimately there isn't any cohesive element to bring it home.
Bottom line: You're welcome to do whatever you like, but I wish you the best of luck if you decide to see this one. You will certainly be shocked at the depravity of the setting and if you're lucky, you might be able to take something from it, negative as it may be.