It is a cinch that the family-values folks aren’t talking about the unnamed clan in “Dogtooth,” a highly origi nal black comedy from Greece — and one of the weirdest movies I’ve seen in a long time.
Mother, Father, Elder Daughter, Younger Daughter and Son live in a comfortable suburban house, complete with a swimming pool in the backyard.
But this is no ordinary family. Father is the only one of the five who ventures forth, driving to his white-collar job at a factory. Mother stays home to look after the grown kids, who live as virtual prisoners in their home, told they cannot leave until their dogteeth fall out.
Confined since birth, the three have been allowed no contact with or accurate knowledge of the outside world. Thus they are tricked into believing that a zombie is a small yellow plant, that a second son has been killed and devoured by cats, that Frank Sinatra’s “Fly Me to the Moon” is an ode to home life sung by their departed grandfather, and that leaving the family compound can lead to death.
The kids’ only contact with the real world comes in the person of Christina, a security guard at Father’s factory who picks up extra cash satisfying Son’s sexual urges during visits to the family’s abode.
The director, Yorgos Lanthimos, believes in minimal dialogue and sound and maximum irony. “Dogtooth” isn’t for everybody, but it will delight the adventurous. And Tom Cruise isn’t in the cast.