The Truffle Hunters

Directed by Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw, The Truffle Hunters follows three elderly figures who’ve made a career out of hunting the Italian woods, with their loyal, trained dogs, for the edible (and very valuable) fungi of the title. Filmmakers Dweck and Kershaw have infused The Truffle Hunters with the feel of an exceedingly quirky drama, as the movie, which boasts an impressively cinematic visual sensibility, generally comes off as a low-key, slice-of-life endeavor revolving around affable (yet undeniably oddball) protagonists – with the film’s nontraditional execution ensuring that it rarely, for large swaths of its brisk running time, resembles a run-of-the-mill documentary. (One could certainly be forgiven for initially assuming the picture is scripted.) And although the movie’s been packed with memorable sequences – it’s impossible, surely, not to get a kick out of the recurrent dog POV shots – The Truffle Hunters admittedly suffers from a hit-and-miss atmosphere that prevents it from becoming the consistently engrossing piece of work it could (and should) have. There’s nevertheless plenty here to admire and embrace, and those dogs sure are adorable, which effectively confirms the film’s place as an erratic yet somewhat satisfying portrait of a lucrative subculture.

**1/2 out of ****