Digital streaming debut for the pet-lovers' movie of the year: Cindy Meehl's THE DOG DOC

It took but ten minutes into the new opened-theatrically-but-then-the-theaters-all-closed-so-now-it's-streaming-digitally documentary, THE DOG DOC, before my tears began flowing. If you, too, are a sucker for needy animals and the people who help them, this is certainly the movie for you.

For many of us, that would be enough, but this particular film, produced and directed by Cindy Meehl (shown at right), offers a lot more, TrustMovies believes, because it and the main physician in it, the veterinarian Dr. Martin Goldstein, practices a form of integrative medicine that the farther you get into this documentary the more you may question why we humans are not being treated in this manner by our own current medical establishment.

Dr. Goldstein (below, with patient) has been practicing for some 45 years now, and from what we see of him, his staff and the satisfied owners of his clients, he has been pretty damned successful. Less successful has been his attempts to bring his form of Integrative veterinary medicine -- which "combines conventional therapies with complementary and alternative medicine for a comprehensive collaboration of diagnosis and treatment" -- into greater usage throughout the veterinary establishment.

His results with patients -- granted they're anecdotal and piecemeal -- remain awfully impressive. Dr. Marty, as he is known, invites naysayers to come into his establishment and watch what goes on. When one of these professionals does just that -- we hear about this from the formerly disbelieving doctor himself, after the fact -- he literally faints dead away. Not out of horror but from pure amazement.

Ms Meehl knows how to make a smart, appealing movie. From the outset, as she introduces our hero and shows us the patients he treats, the documentary amuses and informs. One of the doc's first patients we meet is Waffles, a short-haired white dog near death from a rabies shot that probably oughtn't have been administered. Goldstein is definitely not anti-vaccine, but only healthy dogs ought to be vaccinated, he insists ("It says this right on the label of the medicine!"). Otherwise, you are further compromising an already compromised immune system.

We return to Waffles (above) and his recovery and further slippage a number of times throughout the film, which is salutary, since this dog's case brings up so many germane issues -- from vaccinations and treatments to how long to keep an animal alive despite its sickness, together with how the dollar cost of treatment impacts on the whole scenario.

Two other dogs, given up on by conventional methods, are brought to Goldstein with cancer of the jaw. How these play out are quite different but, again, both are handled intelligently and with great care by doctor and pet owners, while giving us a most interesting look into cryosurgery.

Along the way, we learn about Goldstein's history and his current family life, all of which adds to our enjoyment and understanding. At the inspiring finale, we're with the good doctor as he addresses a class of veterinary medicine students at his alma mater, Cornell University. Over the end credits we're treated to a great old Cat Stevens song that, if you've never heard it, will put a smile on your face. If you already know it, what a delight to hear it again!

From FilmRise and running 101 minutes, The Dog Doc is available now to stream digitally via Amazon and/or iTunes.

FRANCINE: Cassidy/Shatzky's minimal movie stars a very maximal Melissa Leo

I love minimalism -- particularly after, say, putting up with the latest Hollywood blockbuster. (On that note, we tried our luck with Battleship earlier tonight: nothing great, but certainly not as bad as many critics may have led you to believe.) A recent piece of minimal movie-making that works quite well is a film called FRANCINE, which stars the increasingly popular Oscar-winning actress Melissa Leo and comes to us via the film-making team of Brian M. Cassidy and Melanie Shatzky, who often act as writers/directors/ editors/producers (and in the case of Ms Shatzky, as occasional cinematographer).

TrustMovies is not certain that there are not a number of other talented actresses who could bring as much as Ms Leo does to this role. But would they? Would they be willing to hold their vanity to the breaking point and allow themselves to be seen sans makeup, in a nude shower scene, and building a charac-terization of a woman about as sad and sorrowful and maybe even as sick as we have seen for some time. It doesn't matter, however, because Leo, shown above, does a leonine job here, absolutely commanding the screen and our attention and yet giving an utterly un-showy perfor-mance as a middle-aged woman just released from prison (where the movie begins) but barely able to function in the world outside.

Our filmmaking duo (that's Cassidy, top left, and Shatzky at bottom) has a history in the documentary mode, and this becomes clear almost from the first frame. There is plenty of ambient sound, sometime overpowering, but zero exposition (we never learn what the crime was that landed this woman in prison), other than what we can pick up moment to moment from Francine and her life, as she and it move quietly along. "I'm sure you'll do fine," the prison warden says to her as he bids her good-bye. If only.

The movie runs but 74 minutes, including credits, and it feels just about exactly the length it needs to be. While I might have concentrated a little more on the human beings in this woman's life, rather than quite so often on its animal inhabitants, it is clear how important these animals are to Francine's sense of well-being and her need to protect others (the others being animals: much less risky than humans), since she is unable to properly protect herself.

She turns down the genuine overtures of a decent, kind and attractive local man -- nice low-key performance from Keith Leonard (above, right) -- only to be have a bout of self-violating sex with a either a boss or maybe a customer (at this point in the film, she's a waitress) at the local track.  We may get a hint of past history in the way the character responds to a seemingly spontane-ous concert by acid rockers that she encounters, but this is almost akin to guesswork on our part. There's a lesbian tryst along the way, too, but that, like so much else here, Francine is unable to respond to in any kind of normal, socially-responsive manner.

Our girl goes through jobs at the local pet store, lumber yard and veterinary clinic -- where we watch examples of animal spaying (below) and euthanasia -- all the while adding to her menagerie of pets until it's clear that she's incapable of taking care of them or herself. She no longer knows (if she ever did; we don't learn this) how to connect solidly with other people on almost any kind of level, and so she begins to disappear into her "pets."

This is sorrowful, depressing stuff, but as I say you can't look away because Ms Leo is always there and always filling, with utter honesty, the body and soul of Francine -- the woman and the movie. The one positive note: Wherever this film takes place -- it seems like maybe upstate New York -- jobs are certainly easy enough to come by. (Another "if only.")

Francine, a minor gem of realistic character study, coming to us via Washington Square Films and Pigeon Projects and distributed by Factory 25, opens this Wednesday, September 12, in New York City for a week's run at the Museum of Modern Art, with a limited national rollout to follow. And on that note: the film's website might possibly consider updating its Screenings page, and Factory 25 might do the same on its website....