Editing How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog

{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{use mdy dates|date=October 2022}}
{{Infobox film
| name           = How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog
| image          = Howtokilldogdvd.jpg
| caption        = Theatrical release poster
| director       = Michael Kalesniko
| producer       = Michael Nozik<br>Nancy M. Ruff<br>[[Brad Weston]]
| writer         = Michael Kalesniko
| starring       = [[Kenneth Branagh]]<br>[[Robin Wright (actress)|Robin Wright Penn]]<br>[[Jared Harris]]<br>[[Lynn Redgrave]]<br>[[David Krumholtz]]
| music          = David Robbins
| cinematography = Hubert Taczanowski
| editing        = Pamela Martin
| distributor    = Lonsdale Productions
| released       = {{Film date|2000|09|16|Toronto|ref1=<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.branaghcompendium.com/HTKYND_TIFFpress.html|title=How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog - TIFF Press Conference|work=www.branaghcompendium.com|accessdate=5 July 2020}}</ref>|2002|2|22|United States; limited}}
| runtime        = 107 minutes
| country        = United States
| language       = English
| budget         = $7.3 million<ref name="THR"/>
| gross          = $73,510<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0207524/ |title=How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog (2000) |access-date=2022-10-06 |website=[[Box Office Mojo]]}}</ref>
}}

'''''How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog''''' is a 2000 American [[black comedy]] film written and directed by Michael Kalesniko. It stars [[Kenneth Branagh]] and [[Robin Wright (actress)|Robin Wright Penn]].

==Plot==
Peter McGowan is a [[chain smoking|chain-smoking]], [[impotence|impotent]], [[insomnia]]c British [[playwright]] who lives in [[Los Angeles]]. Once very successful, he is now in the tenth year of a decade-long string of production failures. His latest play is in the hands of effeminate director Brian Sellars, who is obsessed with [[Petula Clark]]; his wife Melanie is determined to have a baby; he finds himself bonding with a new neighbor's lonely young daughter who has mild [[cerebral palsy]]; and during one of his middle-of-the-night strolls, he encounters his oddball [[doppelgänger]] who claims to be Peter McGowan and develops a friendship of sorts with him.

==Cast==
{{Cast listing|
* [[Kenneth Branagh]] as Peter McGowen
* [[Robin Wright (actress)|Robin Wright Penn]] as Melanie McGowen
* [[Jared Harris]] as "Pseudo"/"False" Peter McGowen
* Suzi Hofrichter as Amy Walsh
* [[Lynn Redgrave]] as Edna
* [[Peter Riegert]] as Larry
* [[David Krumholtz]] as Brian Sellars
* [[Johnathon Schaech]] as Adam
* [[Kaitlin Hopkins]] as Victoria
* Suzy Joachim as Allana
* Brett Rickaby as Janitor
* [[Lucinda Jenney]] as Trina Walsh
* Derek Kellock as Amy's Father
* Stacy Hogue as Babysitter
* [[Peri Gilpin]] as Debra Salhany
}}

==Production==
[[Petula Clark]]'s recordings of "[[I Couldn't Live Without Your Love]]" and "[[A Groovy Kind of Love]]" were heard during the opening and [[closing credits]] respectively, and "Downtown 99", a [[disco]] remix of her 1964 classic "[[Downtown (Petula Clark song)|Downtown]]", was heard during a party scene. Additional songs originally recorded by Petula Clark were sung by the character of Brian Sellars throughout the film.

==Reception==
The film holds a 59% approval rating on [[Rotten Tomatoes]], based on 34 reviews.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/how_to_kill_your_neighbors_dog|title=How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog (2002)|publisher=Rotten Tomatoes|accessdate=5 July 2020}}</ref>

In his review for ''[[The New York Times]]'', [[Stephen Holden]] described the film as "a Hollywood rarity, a movie about an icy grown-up heart-warmed by a child that doesn't wield emotional pliers to try to squeeze out tears…. It is a tribute to Mr. Branagh's considerable comic skills that he succeeds in making a potentially insufferable character likable by infusing him with the same sly charm that [[Michael Caine]] musters to seduce us into cozying up to his sleazier alter egos…. Mr. Kalesniko's satirically barbed screenplay, whose spirit harks back to the comic heyday of [[Blake Edwards]], stirs up an insistent verbal energy that rarely flags."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Holden |first=Stephen |author-link=Stephen Holden |date=February 22, 2002 |title=Film Review; A Tale of 2 Neighbors, Both Pains in the Neck |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/22/movies/film-review-a-tale-of-2-neighbors-both-pains-in-the-neck.html |access-date=June 19, 2016}}</ref>

[[Owen Gleiberman]] of ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]'' gave the movie a B and said, "Branagh, in his most forceful non-[[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]] screen performance, grounds even the softest moments in the angry revolt of his wit."<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Gleiberman |first=Owen |date=February 15, 2002 |title=How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog |magazine=[[Entertainment Weekly]] |url=https://ew.com/article/2002/02/15/how-kill-your-neighbors-dog/ |access-date=June 19, 2016 |authorlink=Owen Gleiberman}}</ref> Justine Elias of ''[[The Village Voice]]'' stated it was "slight but unendurable…its fractured time frame gets confusing".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Elias |first=Justine |date=February 19, 2002 |title=Criminal Mischief |work=[[The Village Voice]] |location=New York |url=http://www.villagevoice.com/film/criminal-mischief-6414235 |access-date=June 19, 2016}}</ref>

The film was the closing night film at the [[2000 Toronto International Film Festival]] and won multiple festival awards.<ref name="THR">{{cite news |last1=Kilday |first1=Gregg |title=Toronto Flashback: Kenneth Branagh Revealed His Lighter Side in 2000 |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/toronto-film-festival-kenneth-branagh-how-to-kill-your-neighbors-dog-movie-1235010760/ |access-date=6 October 2022 |work=The Hollywood Reporter |date=2021-09-10}}</ref><ref name="TCM">{{cite web |title=How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog |url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/434107/how-to-kill-your-neighbors-dog#notes |website=Turner Classic Movie Database |access-date=6 October 2022}}</ref> It was released as ''Mad Dogs and Englishmen'' in Australia.<ref>{{cite web |title=Mad Dogs and Englishmen DVD |url=https://www.amazon.com.au/Mad-Dogs-Englishmen-Kenneth-Branagh/dp/B01FR38NIU |access-date=6 October 2022}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{IMDb title|0207524|How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog}}
* ''[https://www.allmovie.com/movie/how-to-kill-your-neighbors-dog-v206899 How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog]'' at [[AllMovie]]

[[Category:2000 films]]
[[Category:2000s crime comedy-drama films]]
[[Category:American black comedy films]]
[[Category:American crime comedy-drama films]]
[[Category:Films about people with cerebral palsy]]
[[Category:Nu Image films]]
[[Category:Films about identity theft]]
[[Category:Films produced by Michael Nozik]]
[[Category:Films shot in British Columbia]]
[[Category:Films shot in California]]
[[Category:Midlife crisis films]]
[[Category:2000 black comedy films]]
[[Category:2000s English-language films]]
[[Category:2000s American films]]
[[Category:2000 independent films]]
[[Category:Films about playwrights]]
[[Category:Films set in Los Angeles]]
[[Category:English-language crime comedy-drama films]]
[[Category:English-language black comedy films]]
[[Category:English-language independent films]]