Originally published on Set The Tape
Writer and director Luc Besson has delivered some much beloved movies over the years. He’s given us action stars with long legacies in the form of La Femme Nikita and Léon: The Professional, he’s toyed with historical retellings with The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc, and he’s been downright silly with The Fifth Element. These films all have long legacies, and people tend to think of them fondly thanks in part to the level of passion that Besson puts into his work. Dogman, his latest quirky action drama, more than has the ability to join these other movies as a film that people will remember decades from now.
Dogman tells the story of Douglas ‘Doug’ Munrow, who we first meet as he’s pulled over by police in the pouring rain. Dressed in a fabulous cocktail dress, sporting a curly blonde wig and flashy jewellery, what makes the sight unusual is the fact that he’s bloody and wounded. That, and the dozens of dogs in the back of his van. It feels like this opening scene is one of those set-ups that is designed to grab you and appeal to your sense of curiosity, and if you come away from this moment thinking ‘what the hell?’ your desire to learn more will keep you hooked as we get into the meat of the story.
After being arrested, Doug, played wonderfully by Caleb Landry Jones, is put into a cell as the cops try to figure out what to do with him. A criminal psychiatrist is called in to talk to Doug, to find out what happened to him and why his home is filled with dead bodies. Thus begins a series of flashbacks that delve deep into Doug’s life, that reveal his abusive childhood that began his love for dogs, that explains why he’s in a wheelchair, that explores his career as a jewel thief and drag performer, and explains why a dozen gangsters have been killed in elaborate and bloody ways in his makeshift home in an abandoned school. If that description sounds wild and confusing to you then it gives you a slight sense of how bizarre the story of Dogman is.
Dogman is not your average film, and more than once it feels like you’re shifting from one genre to another. The opening moments are dark and moody, and make you think that you’re going to be watching a gritty thriller. And whilst the film never quite loses that edge, it does sometimes slip into the background so that the film can try something different. From the first time that we see Doug using his highly trained dogs to help out a local business owner, using them to deliver a warning to a local gangster by way of phone delivering Jack Russell, and a German Sheppard crotch grab, it’s clear that Besson is going to inject a lot of fun into proceedings, and honestly, it’s the moment that hooked me for good.
Over the course of the flashbacks we get to know Doug well, beginning in his childhood with a stand out performance by young actor Lincoln Powell. The tragedy of Doug’s youth paves the way for a story of learning to love yourself, and to moving on from your trauma. However, things aren’t easy for Doug, and he comes up against several hurdles.
When the film eventually introduces his discovery of drag it becomes a heart-warming tale of found family as the other Queens flock to him, and several real friendships are formed. And through it all Caleb Landry Jones is absolutely captivating, able to convey the deep emotional pain of Doug, yet making him believably eloquent and surprisingly deep. It feels like you could sit down with Doug and talk to him for hours on end and come away absolutely fascinated by the experience, which makes the fact that his psychiatrist does that all the more believable. This is the first film of Jones’s that I’ve seen, but I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for more because of his performance here.
Whilst the film is essentially the story of Doug’s life, which borders on Forrest Gump levels of silly at times, it’s also a Luc Besson movie, and so action is never far away. When the film deals with why Doug’s home is filled with corpses the movie reaches an all new level of fun. His dogs lure people into traps, some are dragged into the wall like they’ve just been grabbed by the Xenomorph, and there are a few shots that elicited vocal reactions from me because they were so well made and so creepy that I began to wonder if the movie had turned into a horror film. Besson puts his action stamp onto Dogman and it’s absolutely wonderful.
On occasion, before writing a review for a film, I will have a look over what other people have said about it, skimming through a few articles to see if my enjoyment or dislike of it is an outlier or not. When looking at some scores and quotes for Dogman I came away wondering at what point a lot of reviewers began to hate films for having fun. I’ve seen Dogman mocked and ridiculed for not being deep or highbrow, and criticised for telling a somewhat silly story. And whilst it’s not a film that takes itself too seriously, and has a plot that feels like several different movies stitched together at times, it’s never dull, it’s never boring, and by the time it ended I was sad that it was over.
Besson has made ridiculous films in the past (The Fifth Element) and they’re beloved classics, but doing so in 2024 seems to be the point where it brings out the nastiness in people. So whilst you might see it getting some lower scores, or even people openly mocking it, if you like a film whose main goal is to entertain the audience, and genuinely want to have a great time then Dogman is a film that you’re going to want to watch. Luc Besson has made some beloved films in the past, and Dogman more than has the ability to become one that people talk about in the same way.
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