A whole movie about a dachshund? That sounds adorable. It might be, except that it’s from Todd Solondz, who previously brought us movies about a pedophile and a painfully awkward junior high misfit.

Here’s what critics are saying about the movie:

“This Todd Solondz tale of a dachshund and the humans who neglect him is the same meal of misery the filmmaker has been dishing out for years. Only a few glints remain of Solondz’s satiric grit and grace.” — Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

“.. the axioms of his universe are remarkably consistent. Selfishness trumps empathy. Intimacy is the surest route to humiliation. Ambition is the handmaiden of failure. Cruelty is pervasive, innocence is toxic, and the most likable people are the ones who are most honest in their hatefulness… This is an anthology of dark, deadpan comic vignettes, punctuated by an amusing fake intermission and sealed with a grim sight gag. Wiener-Dog (who is also called Doody and Cancer) is spayed and nearly euthanized, strapped with explosives and subjected to a cross-country car trip with an aimless young not-quite-couple (Greta Gerwig and Kieran Culkin)… Even his admirers may wish that this old dog would try a new trick.” — A.O. Scott, NY Times

“Solondz’s creatures feel caged and cramped by their everyday plights, and their dialogue is drained of zing. The ending of ‘Wiener-Dog’ is spectacularly heartless, yet there’s no mistaking the yelp of its admonition: life’s a bitch.” — Anthony Lane, The New Yorker

And here’s what happens to the poor pooch: (SPOILERS):

To quote Courtney Fairhust Howard’s “5 Reasons Why You Should Never See ‘Wiener-Dog‘:

“1.The dog dies. Not only does the dog die, it goes in the most brutal of manners. The camera stays static as the dachshund uncharacteristically escapes from its owner’s backyard, running into a very busy street. We see it run over by three or four cars before it cuts away. It’s gruesome, grotesque, and perhaps worst of all in terms of filmmaking, highly manipulative.”