In a world of broken homes and absent parents, children are forced to create their own security as best they can. Some Dogs Bite is a hard- edged, stunningly photographed and brilliantly performed road movie aimed at younger viewers, in which three brothers - an 18-year-old, a 14-year- old and a baby - travel across the UK in pursuit of some sort of sanctuary, encountering equally lost souls along the way. "No one has ever taken care of us," says one, "so now we must take care of each other." Directed by Marc Munden (The Mark of Cain) and filmed by Wojciech Szepel (Tess of the D'Urbervilles), it boasts stunning performances from Aaron Taylor, Thomas Brodie Sangster and a baby who deserves a Bafta. Viewers unhappy with this tough version of events can interact online and manipulate the outcome.
5 Reviews
Metro Review - Some Dogs Bite leaves teethmarks in the flesh
adamarcher8415 November 2010
How many times have you reached the end of a drama and wished it hadn't turned out quite the way it did? If only your hand had been on the steering wheel and you could have stopped the hero from drowning, or called the fire brigade in time to stop the grand mansion burning down. Some Dogs Bite (BBC3) is a drama that offers that option. You get the chance to go online and twist the outcome by allowing its central character, the taciturn H, to explore variations on his fate. It opens up a roundabout of possibilities, the turning you take deciding the fate of H and his two brothers, teenager Casey and baby Severino. I'm wary of interactive drama. Too often it's simply used as a cop-out by writers and directors who can't quite make up their minds, like a dance track where endless remixes obscure the quality of the original. But Some Dogs Bite sidesteps those concerns, driven by a genuine desire to open up the options to characters who, to put it mildly, have had a rough ride. H, Casey and Severino are orphans, half-brothers born to the same mother and three different fathers. Their mother is dead, the fathers are absent and they face life on the run when Casey snatches Severino from care. On these lost souls director Marc Munden and writer Lin Coghlan hang a haunting portrait of fractured lives on the fringes of society that neither romanticises nor judges its subject. Boasting impressive performances from Aaron Taylor as the struggling H and Thomas Sangster as the other-worldly Casey, Some Dogs Bite does bite. It makes you want to explore the machinations of social services as you get inescapably involved with the different lives the boys could have had, as opposed to the fate doled out by the drama on screen. Some Dogs Bite worked fine as a stand-alone film, a silent and occasionally shocking road movie about boys on a collision course with a dead end. But getting the chance to intervene in their fate, to not just turn a blind eye, meant this moving story's teeth marks lingered in the flesh long after the credits rolled.
emotionally moving tale of compassion vs the modern world.
knittinggunner200512 November 2010
Aaron Taylor (as 'H') puts in a stunning performance of such sincerity that allows for sufficient suspension of disbelief upon which to hang the plot line. One of the key attributes of this drama is that it eschews the standard formula for the 'buddy' movie where by one can interchange any number of characters , locations and other elements from dozens of productions without noticing much difference. In Some Dogs Bite the viewer is compelled focus on each scene through a mixture of curiosity as to the development of the protagonists whist simultaneously kept on edge by the true to life unpredictability of the narrative. In conclusion some dogs bite is at once both brutally stark portrayal of life for the modernly dispossessed and a truly moving depiction of human compassion.
Moving and true to life!
nubianmga26 November 2010
From VARIETY REVIEWS "When the mother of three boys (all from different fathers) dies, her middle son, pubescent Casey (up-and-coming young thesp Thomas Brodie Sangster), kidnaps his younger brother, 10-month-old Severino (played by Cory Smith, Kian Smith and Lewis Ryan Dickinson), from care. Casey then compels his older sib, H (Aaron Taylor), to help them run away to Scotland to find Casey's long-gone dad. Budding criminal H would rather not go but has little choice, as Casey has stolen some money from him and sent it ahead to a post office box in Inverness.
En route, they have various scrapes and hook up with two similarly adrift, emotionally neglected girls, mouthy Venetia (Michelle Asante, especially good) and more stable Seema (Mandeep Dhillon), and romantic feelings blossom between H and Venetia. The kids find shelter in an abandoned rural cottage H heard about from soldier Lenny (Aymen Hamdouchi), who's terribly excited about becoming a dad for the first time, therefore spelling disaster for him" I loved this film and was moved to tears by the storyline. It could have been more hard hitting but that would have meant that many of the young audience who its aimed at wouldn't have been able to watch it. Beautifully acted especially by Michelle Asante and Thomas Sangster. Marc Munden is a wonderful director also. I hope it gets worldwide release
En route, they have various scrapes and hook up with two similarly adrift, emotionally neglected girls, mouthy Venetia (Michelle Asante, especially good) and more stable Seema (Mandeep Dhillon), and romantic feelings blossom between H and Venetia. The kids find shelter in an abandoned rural cottage H heard about from soldier Lenny (Aymen Hamdouchi), who's terribly excited about becoming a dad for the first time, therefore spelling disaster for him" I loved this film and was moved to tears by the storyline. It could have been more hard hitting but that would have meant that many of the young audience who its aimed at wouldn't have been able to watch it. Beautifully acted especially by Michelle Asante and Thomas Sangster. Marc Munden is a wonderful director also. I hope it gets worldwide release
Deeply touching, moving and upsetting
Davalon-Davalon11 November 2023
Warning: Spoilers
It's hard to believe this was a TV movie, because it had elements of something much bigger.
This is a tragic story about two half-brothers (14 and 18) and their baby brother, who couldn't be more than 15 months old. The brothers' mother dies, and neither of them have much in the way of money, home or friends. The only thing that might work, according to sensitive and sweet Casey, the younger brother (a superb Thomas Brodie-Sangster) is to take a road trip to where his father is living and pray that the father will take him and the baby brother in. The problem is: Casey took all the money belonging to his angry, rage-filled older brother "H" (Aaron Taylor, outstanding) and mailed to the post office nearest his deadbeat father so they could all have a fresh start.
The problem is: Casey has "kidnapped" the baby and set off for this journey, forcing "H" to find him and either get his money back or help Casey and baby to their destination, and "H" has no interest in being the "big brother." But he's forced to by circumstances and what an incredible job he does going from someone who doesn't care at all, to someone who cares deeply.
This is the set-up for our journey. Along the way Casey and "H" meet three strangers who will forever change their lives, two troubled young women (Michelle Asante and Mandeep Dhillon) and a male soldier (Aymen Hamdouchi) . All actors were outstanding and we are quickly brought into their worlds and their struggles.
I did not give this movie a 10, because I feel like there was no one who had ensured that animals weren't treated badly (a scene with a caged dog is particularly heartbreaking, and yanking a poor sheep down a road... despite the fact that he is being led back to his flock... just seemed unnecessarily cruel) and also: where were these boys getting the money to properly feed and care for their baby brother? The baby was quite amazing, and it certainly seems he was well cared-for on set, but realistically speaking, other than some scene where I think Casey gave the baby some ice cream, I didn't see them feeding him properly, nor did I ever once see them change his diapers. So, while it's quite clear that Casey loves his baby brother (which is the name of the film in Japan, and is a much better title than the odd "Some Dogs Bite" -- which comes from a brief scene earlier on), I didn't buy that the baby was of the utmost concern throughout the entire film, and it should have been.
Casey, in particular, seems deeply troubled over many things, i.e. "I wonder what it's like to be dead"; "I wish we had a grandfather"; "It's not that we're bad, we're just not special" (the last one, granted, was heartbreaking), whereas I felt his focus needed to be more on the child.
But he does make up for it at the end when they are forced to take the baby to a hospital and Casey gets hysterical when he realizes he won't be able to see the baby brother for a while. In fact, the production missed a huge opportunity because at the hospital, Casey says, "He won't sleep until I sing him his bedtime song." -- which is a great, emotional and revealing moment -- and yet, he never once sang a song to him in the entire film. So, had he done that, this moment would have paid off beautifully.
All that aside, every actor was great and if you can stomach a sad, difficult and tragic emotional journey, then you will be rewarded with some great performances. Extra points for Michelle Asante, who manages to play both a likable and unlikable character at the same time.
This is a tragic story about two half-brothers (14 and 18) and their baby brother, who couldn't be more than 15 months old. The brothers' mother dies, and neither of them have much in the way of money, home or friends. The only thing that might work, according to sensitive and sweet Casey, the younger brother (a superb Thomas Brodie-Sangster) is to take a road trip to where his father is living and pray that the father will take him and the baby brother in. The problem is: Casey took all the money belonging to his angry, rage-filled older brother "H" (Aaron Taylor, outstanding) and mailed to the post office nearest his deadbeat father so they could all have a fresh start.
The problem is: Casey has "kidnapped" the baby and set off for this journey, forcing "H" to find him and either get his money back or help Casey and baby to their destination, and "H" has no interest in being the "big brother." But he's forced to by circumstances and what an incredible job he does going from someone who doesn't care at all, to someone who cares deeply.
This is the set-up for our journey. Along the way Casey and "H" meet three strangers who will forever change their lives, two troubled young women (Michelle Asante and Mandeep Dhillon) and a male soldier (Aymen Hamdouchi) . All actors were outstanding and we are quickly brought into their worlds and their struggles.
I did not give this movie a 10, because I feel like there was no one who had ensured that animals weren't treated badly (a scene with a caged dog is particularly heartbreaking, and yanking a poor sheep down a road... despite the fact that he is being led back to his flock... just seemed unnecessarily cruel) and also: where were these boys getting the money to properly feed and care for their baby brother? The baby was quite amazing, and it certainly seems he was well cared-for on set, but realistically speaking, other than some scene where I think Casey gave the baby some ice cream, I didn't see them feeding him properly, nor did I ever once see them change his diapers. So, while it's quite clear that Casey loves his baby brother (which is the name of the film in Japan, and is a much better title than the odd "Some Dogs Bite" -- which comes from a brief scene earlier on), I didn't buy that the baby was of the utmost concern throughout the entire film, and it should have been.
Casey, in particular, seems deeply troubled over many things, i.e. "I wonder what it's like to be dead"; "I wish we had a grandfather"; "It's not that we're bad, we're just not special" (the last one, granted, was heartbreaking), whereas I felt his focus needed to be more on the child.
But he does make up for it at the end when they are forced to take the baby to a hospital and Casey gets hysterical when he realizes he won't be able to see the baby brother for a while. In fact, the production missed a huge opportunity because at the hospital, Casey says, "He won't sleep until I sing him his bedtime song." -- which is a great, emotional and revealing moment -- and yet, he never once sang a song to him in the entire film. So, had he done that, this moment would have paid off beautifully.
All that aside, every actor was great and if you can stomach a sad, difficult and tragic emotional journey, then you will be rewarded with some great performances. Extra points for Michelle Asante, who manages to play both a likable and unlikable character at the same time.
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