Todd Solondz is a film-maker who’s built his entire career on a divine ability to severely divide audiences – and really anger his dissenters. Happiness, his most memorably divisive film, was a dark comedy that mined uncomfortable laughs from a storyline largely centred on the activities of a paedophile. It was so controversial in fact, that the Sundance film festival, known for screening edgy fare, flat out refused to show it in 1998 due to its illicit content.

No child molesters creep into Solondz’s eighth feature, Wiener-Dog, but his latest proves the film-maker, at 56 years old, has lost none of his bite. However, the plot description would lead you to believe otherwise.

Sundance’s official summary of the film reads: “Wiener-Dog tells several stories featuring people who find their life inspired or changed by one particular dachshund, who seems to be spreading a certain kind of comfort and joy.” Indeed, that “one particular dachshund” features prominently in each of the four mostly unrelated vignettes that make up the film, although Solondz leaves it unclear how the canine lands with each of its strange owners. But Wiener-Dog doesn’t find Solondz going light to deliver an inspirational medley. Instead, he’s created arguably his most caustic film since Happiness. The cast including Trendengel favorites Greta Gerwig, Zosia Mamet, Danny De Vito and Julie Delpy do the rest.