The first directorial effort from screenwriter Mike White (The Good Girl, The School of Rock) is a bona fide success, sensitively straddling the line between dark humor and pathos. Molly Shannon plays Peggy, a shy office assistant whose only love in life is her beagle, Pencil. When he is accidentally poisoned, Peggy doesn’t know how to react and seeks an attachment to men, including hunting-happy neighbor (John C. Reilly) and an asexual vegan activist (Peter Sarsgaard). When those relationships don’t go as planned, Peggy decides to go back to dogs, advocating animal rights, taking her niece to an animal shelter and adopting more pooches. The film offers former Saturday Night Live regular Shannon a starring role, and she’s perfectly cast as the downtrodden Peggy, who struggles throughout the film to find her place in the world. The film creeps up on you with both its humor and grief and, true to White’s form, is far from the formulaic Hollywood rom-com moviegoers are accustomed to.

Shelf Talk: Despite a generally positive critical response, Year of the Dog never caught on in theaters, with truncated theatrical dates in limited distribution. However, the film is a genuine sleeper and well worth recommending to fans of indie gems. White and Shannon promoted the movie heavily, so their appearances should be fresh in customers’ minds, and indie stalwarts Sarsgaard and Reilly are highly recognizable. Promoting the film to dog lovers wouldn’t hurt either.