I saw this one at Cannes and also interviewed its Director Paul Schrader and Writer Matthew Wilder. Interview can be found HERE. Excerpts from my Cannes review:
"The opening scene to "Dog Eat Dog," a little backstory about Willem Dafoe’s wildly erratic Mad Dog, is an open invitation for the audience to accept the nasty gravitas of this wholly terrifying and violent movie. There were a few walkouts during my screening at Cannes, but director Paul Schrader and screenwriter Matthew Wilder wouldn’t want it any other way."
"The opening scene to "Dog Eat Dog," a little backstory about Willem Dafoe’s wildly erratic Mad Dog, is an open invitation for the audience to accept the nasty gravitas of this wholly terrifying and violent movie. There were a few walkouts during my screening at Cannes, but director Paul Schrader and screenwriter Matthew Wilder wouldn’t want it any other way."
"Based on the novel by Eddie Bunker, “Dog Eat Dog” is Paul Schrader’s latest movie and it’s a doozy. The three main guys in the story, Troy (Nicolas Cage), Diesel (Christopher Matthew Cook), and Mad Dog (Willem Dafoe), have been released from prison and find themselves trying to adapt to everyday life. The California “three strike law” is very much on their minds, but they are hooked on the visceral aspect of violence. They claim one more hit, one more jackpot, that’s all they want, but we know their high is never-ending. "
"There isn’t an ounce of fat in Wilder’s wildly inventive screenplay. The film is an amalgam of everything that’s come before it in the gangster genre and yet it feels fresh, new and revitalized by stinging exuberance. Schrader’s direction is possessed - he hasn’t been this energized by a film since 2002’s great “Auto Focus.” It's a high-octane comeback for a filmmaking maverick that we badly need today in these dismal cinematic times"
Now that Jeremy Latchman has replaced James Gunn and Peter Safran as DC Studios CCO, the guy’s past will now be scrutinized ad nauseam by online hordes, and it’s already started.