Amores Perros (2000)

Dogs are not only man’s best friend, they are his ideal metaphor. In Amores perros (2000), maverick Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu presents three interlocking stories of violence, passion, hope, failure, and redemption, all with canine blood pumping through their savagely beating hearts. A cataclysmic automobile collision is the point at which the three segments intersect in this time-shifting, emotion-shifting, perception-shifting powerhouse, with plotlines trailing from and rushing up to that explosive moment. Dog fighting, sibling adultery, a ruined supermodel, and an aging freelance assassin who was long ago a man of ideals and vision all combine, although remaining separate, to create a profound moon of meaning that asks nothing more from us than that we sit back on our haunches and howl at it.