Named after a phrase the director’s father would use to describe severe situations, Paddy Considine’s Dog Altogether is a short film that certainly lives up to its title. Introducing us to his lead character Joseph as he’s ejected from a pub and then proceeds to brutally attack his pet dog in a fit of rage, in less than 30-seconds Considine (who also wrote the short) has set the tone for proceedings and introduced us to his uncompromising narrative . For the next 16-minutes, we follow Joseph, played menacingly by the ever-fantastic Peter Mullan, on a path of self-destruction, as he struggles to curtail his anger and come to terms with his path through life.

Whilst the name Paddy Considine (Hot Fuzz, The Bourne Ultimatum) is a name you may well recognise from the acting arena, as a director his career is still very much in the early stages. Created back in 2007, after Considine went through a period where he started to resent his profession, Dog Altogether was made at a point in his career when the actor “decided it was time I established my own voice”. Listing the films of Ken Loach and Alan Clarke as influences, along with Gary Oldman’s Nil by Mouth, Considine’s first foray into short filmmaking is a raw and brutal watch, that’s a compelling addition to the world of British Realism cinema it’s so passionately influenced by.

Having spent a chunk of my teenage years educating myself in the works of Clarke, Loach and Mike leigh and as a fan of both Considine, Mullan and Olivia Colman (who plays Anita in the short), Dog Altogether was a film I immediately gravitated towards and have wanted to feature on Short of the Week for some time now. 8-years after it was originally created, Film4 finally released the film online and it certainly hasn’t lost any of its power or impact over time. With an approach focused largely on character and performance, whilst the specifics of the film may feel distinctly British, its universal themes surrounding anger and resentment are ones we all should be able to recognise (even if we can’t directly relate to them).

After the success of his short film (Dog Altogether picked up a ‘Silver Lion – Short Film’ award at the 2007 Venice Film Festival, a ‘Best British Short’ award at the 2007 British Independent Film Awards and a ‘Best Short Film’ BAFTA in 2008), Considine went on to expand his narrative into the equally-powerful feature film Tyrannosaur (which saw him pick up another BAFTA in 2012 – this time for ‘Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer’). Considine hasn’t returned to the world of directing since Tyrannosaur (he continues to act), but if Dog Altogether is an example of what we can expect from his work behind the lens, lets hope he puts his directorial cap back on real soon.