Space Dogs

Space Dogs is more meditatively Tarkovskian than History Channel fodder. Kremser and Peter employ plenty of archival and often painful-to-watch footage of these unwitting animal pioneers; they were not "boldly going," but rather "uncomprehendingly sent."

The film draws us through its play toward darker, too-seldom-considered sides of human and doggy nature.

It's hard to shake the feeling that a genuinely arresting documentary was cast adrift somewhere along the line.

We are unable to engage with [the dogs] in any meaningful way beyond conjecture ... In a sense, though, this discrepancy is what is most fascinating about the film.