Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight

AroView: The bold directorial debut of actress Embeth Davidtz, adapted from the memoir by Alexandra ‘Bobo’ Fuller, who was a child witness to the tumultuous post-colonial dawn of Zimbabwe in 1980.

Davidtz is also superb as her despairing mother, but the film is carried by the riveting performance of 7-year-old Lexi Venter as Bobo, a wonderous vessel who constantly asks direct, painfully funny questions which the adults barely understand, or will admit to, themselves. It’s a poetic, visceral expression of profoundly mixed emotions that confronts what it is to be a privileged European in an African land. ★★★★

“There is more of Fuller’s memoir that might be a source for other adaptations. It is hard to imagine any would be more beautifully realized than this.” ~Caryn James, The Hollywood Reporter

“The movie is sometimes funny, sometimes heartrending, but always invitingly candid and relatable. In its specificity it winds up being universal: As children, we really were odd little beasts, weren’t we?” ~Kyle Smith, Wall Street Journal

“As nuanced as a discussion of this topic from the white perspective can be.” ~Mary Kassel, Screen Rant