The Truffle Hunters

By putting us behind the eyes of a dog racing through the underbrush, happily going about what it understands as its work, "The Truffle Hunters" brings us to the source itself: the sniffing out, the digging, the discovery, the reward.

It won't necessarily make you want to rush out and pay a fortune for truffles to shave over your eggs. But it will make you appreciate people whose love for something has so fully informed their lives.

You haven't lived until you've experienced the dog cam.

This endearing, thoroughly entertaining movie might be what we all need right now: An invitation to stop and smell the roses - or, if you're lucky, their far less showy fungal cousins.

Bracing and joyous, the film unearths complex, canine-loving characters who bicker and haggle their way into the audience's hearts.

This is a portrait of a subculture, not an advocacy documentary.

The film plays out a bit like a dream, as if we've stepped into a foggy, earth-toned, other-worldly space...

These hunters, while entertaining at first in their eccentricity, ultimately remain stubbornly and annoyingly opaque.

Ultimately The Truffle Hunters achieves an almost meditative state of oneness with nature. It also leaves you ravenously hungry for a dish that most of us have never tasted.

The film's humor and beauty overwhelm its vagueness and tendency toward tedium.