Summary

Caleb Landry Jones stands out with a brilliant performance.
The supporting cast weakens the film, dragging down the strong lead.
The lack of clear vision and direction from Luc Besson makes the movie fall short.

Luc Besson’s DogMan is clever, well-produced, and particularly beautiful to watch, but none of that makes up for the poor execution that turns a clever concept into a weak movie. DogMan has a few strengths that can make it enjoyable, and the film works hard to deliver a message, but it fails to follow through on the promise of purpose, with heavy-handed religious imagery, and weak performances from almost the entire cast. Caleb Landry Jones, who plays the hopeful hero, is brilliant, but the rest of the cast dulls his performance and turns something with promise hollow.

DogMan is an action-thriller by director Luc Besson that follows Doug, a man with a tortured past and a love of dogs. Following a crime spree, Doug is arrested as they believe him to be the culprit. However, a meeting with a psychiatrist reveals a deeper story about a man and the dogs he cares for, from helping others to heists to his troubled childhood – all painting a much larger picture of the man known as Doug.ProsThe dogs are incredibly well-trained.Caleb Landry Jones gives a standout performance. ConsThe story and pacing are often tedious.The supporting cast give flat performances.Luc Besson’s vision isn’t clear.DogMan lacks coherence.Most of the film drags.

DogMan follows Douglas Munrow (Jones), a man who was cruelly abused as a child and caged up with violent dogs by his father. However, the dogs fail to turn on Doug, and he is instead protected and provided for by the animals that accept him as family. Divine intervention steps in to save him at multiple moments throughout his life, and the story picks up as he recounts his story to a prison-sanctioned psychologist before being sentenced. With overt imagery, Doug is touted as a favored child of God, who endures trials before sacrificing himself for his dogs.

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DogMan Struggles With A Lack Of Coherency
Besides Caleb Landry Jones, the other performances are flat

Throughout the film, there is a gaping contrast between the performances of the cast, with Caleb Landry Jones delivering what could be considered a career-defining performance if the story, pacing, and others didn’t lag. He is fortunate enough to be surrounded by incredibly talented dogs who perform to perfection throughout, but as soon as anyone else enters a scene, the entire movie falls apart. From his drama teacher, Salma, who is repeatedly praised for her talents in acting within the movie, to the psychologist, Evelyn, who is astonishingly flat, the movie would have been better without the supporting cast.

The movie would have been better without the supporting cast.

It would be unfair to point out all the lacking performances, but it feels as though no clear direction was offered. Dialogue is delivered in a perplexing fashion, with most characters appearing completely detached from their lines. This is mirrored in the drag performances that are included, with Doug in full costume, belting out songs that are so obviously a track playing over him that it suggests this detachment may be intentional. If that’s the case, and it’s driving at a deeper point, the film stumbles through each hurdle, failing to make the point clear.

The biggest issue comes down to a lack of clear vision and coherency between the idea, the writing, and the direction, all of which come from Besson. Besson has proven his talents in these areas in many other projects, such as The Fifth Element and Lucy, but they fail to come together here. The only character who has their story developed is Doug, but his character suffers from motivations that feel weak with self-inflated importance and his own violent outbursts.

DogMan Director Luc Besson Release Date September 27, 2023 Studio(s) Luc Besson Productions , EuropaCorp Distributor(s) EuropaCorp Writers Luc Besson Cast Caleb Landry Jones , Jojo T. Gibbs , Christopher Denham , Grace Palma Runtime 114 Minutes

DogMan Is Clearly Ambitious, But Does Nothing With That Ambition

DogMan has a lot going for it. Jones’ performance is truly transformative, and the representation of gender fluidity and freedom of expression present could have been great. But due to a lack of commitment to any one aspect apart from Doug’s love for dogs, the whole movie underwhelms. Besson knows how to deliver action, how to effectively convey emotion, and how to create beautiful imagery, and while he uses these tools, the concepts are never brought together in a satisfying or meaningful way.

DogMan
began as a confusing concept, which only became more jarring and incoherent as the movie went on.

Doug’s boundless hope in the face of cruelty is admirable, but then his lack of composure when he sees the older woman he had a one-sided crush on as a boy getting married feels out of character. The woman he confesses his crimes to is purely a soundboard for the story to play out, but DogMan tries to make her important in the final minutes, as though she connected with Doug or did anything apart from give single-sentence responses in between long intervals.

In addition, there are several scenes that drag, stretching out over multiple minutes when they would have been more effective if cut shorter. DogMan began as a confusing concept, which only became more jarring and incoherent as the movie went on. The imagery and language used indicate the film was intended to mean and say more than it did, but it struggled to clearly define itself and shine an adequate light on the star due to poor pacing and a lack of clear direction in the story or the performances.

DogMan
will have a limited release in theaters on March 29, before a wider release from April 5.