Isle Of Dogs Review: 7 Ups & 2 Downs
3. The Scathing Social Commentary
Though Isle of Dogs is quite distinctly removed from our own reality, taking place 20 years in the future, that doesn't mean Anderson isn't semi-playfully riffing on the real world at large.
The central premise, for instance, involves a corrupt politician creating a moral panic about dogs for his own gain, which in a time where racial tensions are reaching a distinct boiling point in the U.S. in particular, it couldn't feel more relevant.
There's also a ton of imagery throughout nodding towards the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, with pretty much every explosion in the movie resulting in a mushroom cloud. And, of course, the central city is unsubtly named Megasaki City.
Thankfully it's totally possible to just enjoy the movie on a pure surface level and ignore all this if you so wish, but at the same time, it's there for those who want to engage with it.