A genre of film that is rarely done right is kids’ films. From time to time, kids’ films can be some of the best movies ever. More often than not, they aren’t handled very well. Directors forget  to let the kids be kids in these films. The great kids films like ET The Extra-Terrestrial, The Goonies Stand By Me, and Home Alone are examples of how you let kids be kids. Don’t Let’s Go To The Dogs is another good example of this. The main child Bobo acts just like any kid should in the scenarios she is in. I’d act this way if I were in her shoes as well. His sister, a teenage girl, acts very much like a female teenager would act as well.  Embeth David’s gets it regarding this genre.

Bobo (Lexi Venter) is a little girl ⅞ years old who lives in Zimbabwe/Rhodesia, Africa, in 1980 with her mother,  father, and sister. They also have a few servants who work them on their farm and around the house. They cook and clean and attend to the animals on the farm. Her mother and father also work as soldiers and police officers in the area where they live. They are a white family in a predominantly Black area of Africa. Bobo is a curious young girl, and she likes to explore and make friends with the local indigenous people of the area where they live.  She’s caught in the middle of her family who don’t like the locals and her own fondness for one in particular who works for the family, Sarah. She’s in a tough spot, but she’s a child, so she basically has to do what her parents say.

For many years, a lot of the countries in Africa had dealt with the Civil War or some kind of conflict. This film shows an election that eventually would change this country featured in the movie. Many years back, countries like England, Belgium, and France settled in Africa as a way of planting their flag, but as the years went by, the indigenous people took over these countries one by one. That’s the story here with this one family caught in the middle. And a little girl not knowing what’s right and wrong about what’s going on in the place she calls home. Moving or changing scenery as a child can be traumatic.  I know because my family moved 9 times by the time I was 18 years old. It was a fun experience getting to know new people or getting acclimated to a new school every year. This story showed the difficulty of this little girl’s situation quite clearly.

Lexi Venter is a young actress I wasn’t familiar with before watching this movie, but I was glued to the screen every moment she was on it.  From the very beginning, she had me interested in what she was going and / or saying.  When she was riding her little motorbike, attracting the boys or crawling under the kitchen table, pulling on shoes and socks, her mischievous spirit showed through. As a little kiss once, I was curious and exploratory myself. So I know what it’s like to be curious and  starved for attention. Venter was amazing in this role. I can’t wait to see her again in the future.  Sometimes,  her inner monologue was as interesting as the performance she was giving on screen. She is a star in the making, similarly to Drew Barrymore at that age. 

Embeth David is an actress I’ve seen from time to time here or there in films or television series. This is a big leap for her as the writer/director and co-star of the film. She was fascinating to me because she reminded me of one of my parents when I was a child, my father. The trauma of her situation affected her very much.  This was a tragedy that was handled off screen that made her have a difficult life. She resorted to drinking herself to sleep every night, and she slept with an aka 47 in her bed as protection in case the indigenous people got a little frisky one night.  Davids put me in her shoes with everything she was dealing with. That’s a sign of a good writer/director. I felt her pain and the difficulties her and her family were dealing with. Family trauma can be hard to accept at times, especially when you have other children you have to raise. It can make you paranoid or crazy.

Don’t Let’s Go To The Dogs is a true story I wasn’t familiar with before watching this film. It reminded me of many other situations around the world and in Africa I had heard about before, though. The situation involving the mother being distraught and drinking herself into a stupor every night with kids in the house was very relatable to me. The little girl who played Bobo, Lexi Venter, was exceptional. She had the exact kind of rambunctious personality myself and my brothers and sister had at that age. This little actress was perfectly cast in this role. All the dirty running around getting into trouble was exactly like me and my siblings at that age. I was completely invested in her entire  story during the course of the film. David’s as a writer/director gave me a story that wasn’t very interesting.  I felt like I learned something watching this movie. That’s a good thing. She also played a good mother, going through a difficult time. People need to see a film. It’s one with a good story that’s relatable and a fantastic performance by Venter.

3 ½ stars

Dan Skip Allen