'DogMan': Luc Besson's canine carnival - review

Luc Besson’s latest movie, DogMan, which opened throughout theaters in Israel on Thursday, plays like a cross between The Joker and 101 Dalmatians, filmed in the extremely stylish manner Besson’s fans have come to expect.

It tells the story of Douglas (Caleb Landry Jones), an abused loner (read: Christ figure) who learns early on in life that he can trust and love dogs better than humans. It opens when he, dressed in drag as Madonna from the “Material Girl” video, is arrested near Newark driving a truck filled with dogs.

The story of who he is and how he got there unfolds as he speaks to a police psychiatrist, Evelyn (Jojo T. Gibbs), who has a story of her own: She lives with her mother, who is helping her raise her baby, while her ex is a drug addict. Her soulfulness persuades Douglas to open up.

It turns out he was raised by an extremely violent father, who was often egged on by his Bible-thumping brother. His mother left after suffering many beatings, and Douglas was locked in an enclosure in the yard with the father’s dogs, which suited the boy fine. 

He bonded with the dogs and would never have left, but his father shot him in the spine and was arrested, along with the vile, complicit brother. Wheelchair-bound, Douglas doesn’t make friends in the foster homes where he lives and the schools he goes to, and is completely solitary until Salma (Grace Palma), a drama teacher, introduces him to Shakespeare and opens his eyes to the world of art and culture. 

When she leaves to begin a professional stage career, he is bereft. Although he earns a university degree in biology, he cannot get a job anywhere (this is one of the movie’s most jarring false notes, but you’re not meant to think about anything in this film realistically).

ADOPTING A pack of dogs, he runs a shelter where they live like a big, happy family, and he uses their skills to help out suffering people in the neighborhood, such as a young boy whose aunt, a laundress, is being shaken down for protection money by a local gang. 

But when the authorities shut the shelter down, he must find another way of supporting the dogs, so he begins to do an act in a drag café where he expertly imitates Edith Piaf and Marlene Dietrich. His idyllic life cannot last, however, and incidents are put in motion that lead to his arrest.

Luc Besson: Master of the "Cinema du look"

This is all told in fast-paced, carefully photographed and staged segments, proving Besson is still the master of the so-called “Cinema du look.” This is a term coined by film critic Raphael Bassan to describe a group of directors who began their careers in the 80s, among them Besson, Jean-Luc Beineix, and Leo Carax. 

These filmmakers favor style over substance, focus on young, attractive and alienated characters, and feature gorgeously filmed set-pieces. There is often a wise Black person around, like the opera singer who refuses to allow her voice to be recorded in Beineix’s Diva, the 1981 film that kicked off this mini-genre, or Evelyn here. 

In the old days, there was always a young woman, often very young, although here the beauty Salma is older than the hero and her appearance is relatively brief.

Besson Is Probably Best known for his 1994 film, Leon: The Professional. That film starred Natalie Portman in her movie debut, playing a 12-year-old whose family has been murdered by drug dealers and who is taken in by a paternal hitman (Jean Reno). 

It features scenes where Portman dresses up and performs for him as Madonna and Marilyn Monroe, which the Israeli-born American actress has complained in recent years made her feel exploited. Besson has survived a few sexual-assault accusations, which were dismissed.

He is a born storyteller and his films, including DogMan, are undeniably entertaining. He knows how to pick actors with great presence. 

Jones, who previously won a Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival for the movie Nitram, gives a mesmerizing performance in the lead role. Even in the scenes where he is just sitting and speaking quietly to the psychiatrist, you can’t take your eyes off him. You may want to – there is something schlocky about how neatly Besson packages this alienated loser tale, and if I had a dollar for every Christ-image the French film director, writer and producer works in, I could retire. 

But I did enjoy much of it, even though I guessed the ending in the first 20 minutes. And though I knew exactly what was coming, Besson, the ever-precise Gallic showman, surpassed my expectations with its energy and flourishes. Even if you aren’t a dog person, you may have fun with DogMan.