MOVIE REVIEW : ‘DOGS’ RUNS ON PUNK POWER

On Nov. 3, 1957, the Soviet Union launched the first occupied space craft. Dubbed Sputnik 2, it carried a canine named Laika.

“Dogs in Space” (AMC Century 14) from Australia, while making reference to the event, seemingly has nothing to do with it or that era. Set in 1979 Melbourne, its focus is a communal house primarily inhabited by a punk band named Dogs in Space.

If it all sounds rather confused there’s good reason--it is. But don’t run away in horror. Confusion is the essence of the film. Writer-director Richard Lowenstein isn’t interested in making sense or bringing cohesion to the chaos of his characters’ lives, and it’s hard to fault him or his film on that basis.

At the same time, don’t expect a realistic slice of life’s underbelly either. Lowenstein applies documentary observation but within the context of a fiction. “Dogs in Space” is about young people who’ve lost their innocence and haven’t quite realized it’s missing.

It’s what’s beneath the surface rather than the banal story line that provides the fascinating can’t-take-your-eyes-off-the-screen quality of the film. Sam (Michael Hutchence) is the self-absorbed lead singer who’s involved with Anna (Saskia Post), an aimless young woman who mistakenly clings onto him as if he were a life raft. The rest of the household is populated by other musicians and drifters, as well as an engineering student and a young girl who appears to be doing nothing more than absorbing the atmosphere.

Life rather than drama unfolds in the house, and this is both an asset and limitation. Lowenstein’s style is commendably persuasive, but he appears to be laboring under the delusion that what occurred in Australia at that time had universal resonance. Therefore, it’s easy to jump to the wrong conclusion. The kids aren’t working class, nor is their plight the result of a faltering economy as has been seen in a string of recent British films. We are informed, almost too late to make an impression, that they’re “spoiled, middle-class brats.”

While the story details of “Dogs in Space” (Times-rated: Mature) tend to evaporate quickly, the raw emotional power of the film makers’ aspirations leave a profound imprint. Almost instinctually we sense tragedy, and it’s to the film makers’ and cast’s great credit that we hope against hope that somehow it can be averted.