Starring an ensemble cast led by Ellen Burstyn, Kieran Culkin, Julie Delpy, Danny DeVito, Greta Gerwig, Tracy Letts, and Zosia Mamet, the film serves as a spin-off from Solondz's 1995 film Welcome to the Dollhouse, which also features the character of Dawn Wiener.

Dina comforts Remi by telling him an embellished story about her childhood dog, which she claims died after giving birth to a litter of stillborn puppies.

During Dina and Danny's yoga class, Remi and Wiener-Dog tear up the couch cushions and cover the living room in feathers.

One day while shopping for pet food, she runs into her ex-boyfriend (from junior high) Brandon, who invites her to visit his brother Tommy and his wife April, both with Down syndrome, in Ohio.

In the meeting, he tearfully explains that he had tried to put real emotion into his script, but he compromised and added funny elements to make it more commercial, thus ruining it.

Nana receives a call from her granddaughter Zoe, who is on her way to visit for the first time in several years, along with her boyfriend Fantasy, a conceptual artist.

Once Zoe leaves, Nana goes outside and sits with Wiener-Dog, where she dreams about a younger version of herself coming back to show her what her life could have been if she had been more positive.

[5] On June 24, 2015, the complete cast of the film was announced, which included Brie Larson, Kieran Culkin, Zosia Mamet, Danny DeVito, Ellen Burstyn, and Tracy Letts.

[8] Solondz initially wrote the script several years prior to making the film, but was unable to find financing.

The website's critical consensus reads, "For filmgoers predisposed to enjoy Todd Solondz' brand of black comedy, Wiener-Dog won't disappoint — but those put off by previous works need not apply.

[22] Guy Lodge of Variety gave the film a positive review, writing: "Each of their mini-narratives plays out in the pause-heavy mode of highly mannered mundanity that will feel entirely natural to Solondz acolytes — and, it seems, to the actors, most of whom tackle the director’s customarily arch dialogue with brusque aplomb.

Delpy, in particular, was born to deliver his harshest words, though it’s Burstyn — using very few at all, her set face shifting and falling as the script lends reasoning to her froideur — whom viewers might find themselves unable to shake.

"[23] Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a positive review writing: "These last minutes are the best in the film and by far the most visually dazzling, even though Ed Lachman’s cinematography throughout stands as a model of subtle and elegant compositional skill tested by what are, for the most part, deliberately banal settings.