A bewildered young man is stopped at a checkpoint behind the wheel of a truck full of dogs, wounded and dressed in an evening gown. The young man, Doug (Caleb Landry Jones, GET OUT) is taken to the police station and interrogated by psychiatrist Evelyn (Jojo T. Gibbts). He gradually tells her about his miserable youth, after which he couldn’t walk anymore and didn’t trust most humans, his one love who disappointed him but showed him the path to reinvention, and how he became the supernatural protector of the weak. And of course, the love that connects him to dogs.

DOGMAN deals with a similar brand of incel teen misanthropy as Todd Phillip’s JOKER (2019), but approaches it in a less serious and thereby more honest way. If DOGMAN has a “revolutionary“ message to impart to its audience, it’s “adopt dogs! You can trust them.“ DOGMAN probably doesn’t have a deeper message, these are scenes that are strung together that Luc Besson has seen in other films and now wants to do them himself. Everything is very colorful and stylishly edited, every suspected cliche turns into something more extreme. Why did Doug find his new home in a drag club? No idea, but since this is a French production Edith Piaf has to appear and get everyone excited. No worries, the big shoot-out is coming soon, and it’s very cool. The film is very entertaining, and it’s to Caleb Landry Jones’ credit that his character never seems grotesque despite the manic plot. And the way in which the saying “never work with children or dogs“ is disproved here is really remarkable.

Christian Klose

Translation: Elinor Lewy