Pet Shop Days Review: An Admirably Abrasive Film With a Blistering Hero at the Helm

Pet Shop Days, written by Jack Irv, Olmo Schnabel, and Galen Core and directed by Schnabel in his debut, features a protagonist so unlikable, so emotionally ugly it’s almost to be admired. Alejandro (Darío Yazbek Bernal) is a rich Mexican kid and poster child for Freud: he hates his father (Jordi Mollà) and loves his mother (Maribel Verdú). There’s very little subtext in this film. The themes are as abrasive as the neon lights in any one of the many, many scenes set in strip clubs and underground drug dens hidden in the shadowy parts of New York City.

When Alejandro makes a deeply irrational mistake that nearly kills his mother, he runs to the United States, living off dwindling credit and short-term scams. He befriends Jack (Jack Irv), a gullible, aloof young man who quickly falls for Alejandro’s marginal charm. Jack’s parents (Emmanuelle Seigner and Willem Dafoe) are barely on speaking terms. He’s a lost boy searching for purpose in the naked city. He works shifts at a pet store downtown. This is where he runs into Alejandro.

Before long the duo are pulling small-time crimes around town, conning rich ladies out of money and jewelry when convenient. Meanwhile, Alejandro’s father has sent someone (Louis Cancelmi, the best part of this movie) to find and collect his son. Everything about Pet Shop Days is a bit extreme: the focal lengths, the color-grading, the sex scenes. Even the crimes escalate into something worryingly extreme. The problem, then, is that its story is fairly rote.

New York looks nasty and exciting, an aesthetic that challenges the viewer more than anything in the narrative. At 106 minutes before credits, Pet Shop Days also overstays its welcome a bit. We see where this is all going, and at a certain point, the less time with Alejandro the better. Dafoe offers up some intense, memorable scenes, as do Molla and Cancelmi, who is so striking that it begs interest in what a leading role for the actor might look like.

In one sequence Dafoe yells “I hate doing this!” at Jack while physically abusing him––striking and disturbing in a specific way only Dafoe could achieve. Peter Saarsgard is also here. He and Cancelmi have a one-on-one scene halfway through that is threatening, tense, interestingly designed. Its necessity to Pet Shop Days‘ larger framework is up for debate.

Jack’s sexual awakening, thanks in large part to Alejandro, is introduced but never fully explored. He has so little agency that any progress or self-discovery he may have made seems more accidental than anything. Even the ending seems to underline this confused point. Darío Yazbek Bernal does good work as Alejandro, though the design of the character is so dark, so devious that any rooting interest is left to Jack, who can’t seem to keep up. Pet Shop Days is a nobly scathing piece of work, though the juice may not be worth the squeeze.

Pet Shop Days screens in NYC at Roxy Cinema on March 15 and 22 and in Los Angeles at Now Instant Image Hall on March 28.

The post Pet Shop Days Review: An Admirably Abrasive Film With a Blistering Hero at the Helm first appeared on The Film Stage.