Director: Alex Goyette
Writer: Alex Goyette
Stars: Daniel Doheny, Dot-Marie Jones, Maddie Phillips, Tanaya Beatty, Paige McGarvin
Synopsis: An eccentric poodle breeder lures a broke college student to her remote ranch with a promise of research funding. But, as he soon learns, there’s a catch.
A lot of studios are in a tizzy looking for the next Obsession. They’re looking high, low and in between the depths of Reddit and YouTube for the next online sensation to turn into a feature length success. Alex Goyette’s Breeder could’ve been a short film that would’ve sufficed but it being a feature does a lot of good for it. This movie has a lot to say about class status, procreation with people on the same level as you, and people going through similar struggles with their parents.
Breeder tells the story of ex MIT student Russell (Daniel Doherty). He’s dropped out of school to focus on his bee sustainability project that he really believes in. After a failed meeting with potential partners he’s down in the dumps and ready to give up. Some time after he’s contacted by poodle breeder Patti (Dot-Marie Jones). Patti gushes over him in her letter about how she believes in his project and how she wants to help him achieve his goals. Russell and his fiancée (Tanaya Beatty) do research on Patti and she seems like such a sweetheart. Without hesitation, Russell drives 5 hours out of the city to meet with her. At their meeting he charms Patti by being interested in her career as a dog breeder and her family life with her daughters. At the end of their night, Patti hands Russell a blank check. This is her way of telling him that she wants to fully fund his project but of course there’s a catch. Russell has to help Patti with a new project of her own.
If you’re an avid horror fan you know that these stories usually have a twist that can either make a story better or it can bring it down a few notches in quality. Goyette’s twist in this movie brings a lot of questions with it. Some of these questions could range from, “Are you ok with being disloyal to your partner?” to “Would you be content with living your life knowing that you have a child out in the world that was brought into the world under such odd circumstances?” Dot-Marie Jones gives a career defying performance as Patti in this movie. She’s very unpredictable, blunt, and she doesn’t really care about people’s feelings. Patti treats everyone as they’re disposable and she talks about them like they’re her litter. There were a few moments in the movie where I scrunched up my face and thought, “There’s something really odd about this woman.” Jones’ Patti sees nothing wrong with her project, frankly she thinks that she’s doing the world a solid. Playing God is something that she probably had no intentions of doing but the opportunity presented itself and she jumped all in.
Writer and director Goyette is a former YouTube creator that has his first studio feature on his belt. I wasn’t familiar with his work so I did some research on him and I was pleasantly surprised with what I found. Most of the upcoming filmmakers from YouTube have a background with comedy. They have a useful skill of making an audience laugh and disturbing them at the same time. A lot of the comedy is delivered by Jones and it’s so awkward and chuckle worthy. Patti says some of the most corniest things and she drops random facts that leave Russell like, “Uh huh.” Russell struggles with doing the tasks in order to get his study funded and Patti stays as calm as she can in getting him to do the tasks like he’s one of her dogs.
I think that Breeder could fall under the radar because it’s an independent film and it’s not getting a lot of publicity. By all means this film won’t be a box office hit like Obsession. Be that as it may I think that everyone should give it a shot for its weaving of comedy, disturbing elements, and the questions that the movie presents that I stated earlier in the review. Dot-Marie Jones’ performance is more than enough reason to sit down and give this movie your full attention. There were so many times that I yelled, “Russell, just leave my dude!” or “Patti, why do you have to mess with them like that?!” If a movie can get me to react like that then it adds points to my score.
