Film Review: Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight

Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight
Director: Embeth Davidtz
Rose and Oaks Media
In Theaters: 06.18.2025

In the early ‘90s, Embeth Davidtz appeared in major roles in two polar opposite cinematic legends: In 1992, she starred opposite Bruce Campbell in the beloved cult horror comedy Army of Darkness, and only a year later, she followed that with an unforgettable performance in one the best films of the late 20th century, Schindler’s List. That’s the kind of rare one-two punch that you can spend the rest of your professional life trying to find a way to follow up and never succeed, but Davidtz has finally done so over 30 years later with Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight. And this time, she’s not being directed by Sam Raimi or Steven Spielberg, but by herself.

Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight, adapted from the 2001 memoir of the same name by Alexandra Fuller, tells the story of a family and a country at a crossroads, and does it all through the naive yet observant eyes of an eight-year-old child. Bobo (newcomer Lexi Venter) is a spirited child growing up in 1980 Rhodesia during the civil war which would later transform the British-colonized country into modern Zimbabwe. Bobo roams freely through a landscape where innocence and danger coexist, with her a dirt bike, a pellet gun and stolen cigarettes among her greatest treasures. Soldiers, terrorists, bombs and gunfire are simply part of everyday life in Bobo’s world, and it’s just the way things are — as is the class disparity between her white Rhodesian family and the family of her beloved African nanny, Sarah (Zikhona Bali, Thando, DiepCity). Bobo frolics, laughs and sings with a cheerful innocence as the world around burns, and she tries to make sense of it in the same way any child tries to learn about life, and bossing around the African children the same way she sees the white adults doing to servants. “Are we racist?” Bobo casually asks her mother, Nicola (Davidtz), who is in many ways less in tune with the reality of what’s happening around her than Bobo. Nicola has turned to alcohol to cope with an unfathomable tragedy, and refuses to leave the country and their home no matter how dangerous things get, while her husband Tim (Rob van Vuuren, Mandela: The Long Walk To Freedom) serves in the army. Bobo’s relationships — with Sarah, her sister Vanessa (Anina Reed) and the land itself — reveal the contradictions of a collapsing colonial world, and she slowly begins to question what is right and what is wrong, forming beliefs of her own amidst the madness that surrounds her.

Davidtz co-wrote the screenplay along with Fuller, and directs with a steady hand and remarkable vision that signals the arrival of a great filmmaker. Where many memoir-based films can’t seem to find a middle ground between being a series of vignettes and forcing an artificially structured narrative, Davidtz makes it an immersive experience, inviting the audience to step right into the middle of this chaotic setting through Bobo. She is a largely passive observer who serves as embodiment of both clueless white privilege and the ability to learn and grow simply by opening one’s eyes, mind and heart, and by questioning what you are told. There are many disturbing elements of Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight, and not just the obvious ones inherent to the setting. Vanessa, Bobo’s awkward tween sister, is completely ignored by their mother, who favors Bobo. The predatory behavior of uncle Anton (Albert Pretorius, One Piece) goes completely unnoticed until Bobo speaks up, and the deeply troubling news is dismissed as simply another ugly thought that can’t possibly be real (or one of Bobo’s tall tales). In many ways, Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight is a searing portrait of the way white people walk through the racial divide, blissfully unaware of the fact that they can only be innocent for a time, until eventually they must either become part of the solution or be content to be part of the problem.

The performances are beyond stellar, and Davidtz smolders as the troubled and callous Nicola, giving a performance that will rank among the defining roles of her career. Davidtz the director, however, resists the urge to let this meaty role for Davidtz the actress take over the film, and instead puts her primary focus on guiding young Venter to a remarkably captivating and powerful performance that commands the screen while remaining indelibly real. It’s the sort of child actor performance that Spielberg was known for getting from the likes of Henry Thomas, Drew Barrymore and Christian Bale. Venter and her sensitive and skilled director deserve recognition for a towering achievement in synergy that leads to perfection. It’s not a question of where Venter’s Bobo stands among the great cinematic performances by a child actor. As the point of view character, Bobo could have been far less engaging and the film still would have worked on some level, but as a richly drawn human being who slowly learns to replace ignorance with wisdom, she pulls it all together into a rich tapestry of storytelling and insight. The interactions between Bobo, the loving Sarah and the stern Jacob (Shilubana N Fumani, Mafanto, The Drop), another servant whose relationship with the family is far more tenuous, make for the film’s best and most emotionally rewarding moments.

Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight isn’t a movie that mass audiences are going to be rushing out to see, and with its heavy and timely subject matter, it’s hard to blame anyone who doesn’t want to spend their weekend thinking about such things. At the same time, Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs is a film that makes a powerful statement about the world we live in and whether we choose to merely pass through it on the sidelines, learn from it, do better and tell the stories that must be told — whether we want to think about them or not. It’s the kind of film that reminds me why I do this, and it deserves your time and attention. —Patrick Gibbs

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