How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog

"How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog" (2002) is a dry Los Angeles comedy-drama with Kenneth Branagh — watch it online on iFILM. Peter McGowan is a playwright ten years deep into a losing streak: insomniac, chain-smoker, impotent, and irritated by nearly everything, including the dog barking on the other side of the fence.

Director Michael Kalesniko keeps the tone deadpan. Peter starts spending time with the neighbor's young daughter, who has mild cerebral palsy, and she affects him in ways he is not prepared for. Then there's a doppelgänger he keeps running into on his midnight walks — a stranger who unsettles him for different reasons entirely. Robin Wright plays his wife with the quiet fatigue of someone who has already said everything twice. Branagh plays the exasperation without a trace of self-pity, which is why the film holds. Stream "How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog" (2002) online on iFILM.