I had to watch this a few times to get everything I could out of it. I will tell you if you are expecting some kind of tribute to Ms. Anderson's dog in the vein of "Marley and Me", then you are going to be very disappointed. Instead Ms. Anderson weaves in stories about her dog, her Buddhist beliefs, her past back to her childhood, and the growth of the surveillance state into one very interesting piece. At the point where her dog, rat terrier Lolabelle, dies, the dog exits the narrative.

The opening pretty much gives you an idea of how avant-garde things are going to get, because it is about a dream she has where she has her dog sewn into her stomach by surgeons so that she can give birth to her. There are fun things that anybody could enjoy such as dogs wearing sandals - apparently this is a "thing" in Asia, and how Lolabelle went blind in her old age, and afterwards Ms. Anderson put some keyboards on the floor so the dog could "learn to play". The terrier actually got pretty good at "playing". Lolabelle actually did charity performances and even a Christmas album! I guess the one thing I really noticed is how Ms. Anderson is so unquestioning of her Buddhist beliefs and teachers. Case in point -when her dog got to the end of life and was in pain, the vets were recommending euthanasia. Ms. Anderson consults a Buddhist teacher who said that death is a process and you have no right to interfere with that process with either humans or animals. So unquestioning of that unconventional path, she took Lolabelle home from the vets - I'm hoping with tranquilizers and pain killers for her - and let her die on the living room floor in her regular dog bed.

Is this just a "thing" Americans have? (I'm American by the way) Whatever spiritual advice they are given by their chosen religion they follow it, regardless of common sense or compassion? I guess the fact that the piece raised questions with me is a good thing. I will say the visuals are very well done and Ms. Anderson has a calm and soothing voice. Not for everybody, but I would give it a chance. In fact, you'll probably have to give it several chances to get it.

Now Laurie Anderson isn't really a musician, she is an artist using all kinds of modern media and her concerts are more impressive than her audio CDs. I wasn't really sure what to expect of this film and fortunately it isn't as artsy as many of the works of video artists often are are, where - as usually in modern art - you have to make sense of the material yourself, somehow; no, this is a very watchable film with Laurie spreading out memories and thoughts about her rat terrier Archie and her mother, both of which have passed away rather recently. Also of course, her husband, the rock musician Lou Reed, had died only 2 years ago so the topic of death seems a very natural one in those circumstances. Still, this is not a sad or bitter film but at best maybe a melancholic but often also a happy one with an emphasis on cheerful memories. It is a meditation on life and death spoken in her very soft singsong voice.

I am a Laurie Anderson fan. I have been since her album "Big Science" was released in 1982. I remember listening to "Walking and Falling" over and over on my SONY Walkman as I walked many paths and feeling like she really got it, whatever it was. I continued to follow her, through her release of "Home of the Brave" in 1986 and saw her perform live at the Zellerbach Hall in the 90s. Her marriage to Lou Reed seemed so perfect. So, when I heard she made a movie, I had to check it out. As I left the theater, I could only ask myself, "Why did it take so long?"

"Heart of a Dog" is a beautiful tribute to life, love, and the fleeting nature of time. It is everything you would expect from a Laurie Anderson movie and then some. It is not a documentary, it is a cinematic essay on loss and love and death and remembrance. It is poetry on film. Laurie Anderson is, in my mind, first and foremost a poet. She has been graced with an understanding of the power of language, not only in the actual chosen words, but in the cadence of their delivery. The influence of Burroughs is obvious. In "Heart of a Dog", she translates that poetry to imagery, mixing home movies, weird distorted images barely recognizable, to straight up film moments, it all comes together as the ultimate Laurie Anderson expression.

If you are not a fan, this may not be the film for you, or it may be a gateway into the mind of a creative genius. It is not so much a film as a stream of consciousness visual essay. If you are a fan, then make all haste to see this film. It is everything you can imagine a Laurie Anderson film to be.