As part of my screenwriting education I try to go to the cinema once a week. This routine was obviously disrupted during the pandemic, but over the past few months I have begun to recover my old regimen. The Successity Blog will aspire to review most of the films I enjoy at the cinema.
One movie that stood out for me recently, primarily because I had low expectations of it when I sat down with my popcorn, was DOG. I was wrong, however, to expect so little. Far from being a predictable pooch move that aspires to jerk tears at every turn, DOG is a thought-provoking journey into the hearts of military Vets and the ethics of Middle America.
DOG is an important movie for two reasons. The first is that it heralds the resurgence of the mid-budget movie at the US Box Office. There had been a fear that mid-budget flicks post-pandemic would be forever squeezed from the market by tentpole pics or be completely absorbed by the streamers. But DOG belies that. Made for about US$15 million, the movie has made over $54 million at the US Box Office within five weeks of opening. There is hope for low-to-mid-budget movies in the cinemas yet.
The second reason is that Channing Tatum’s directorial debut (with co-director Reid Carolin) is on the whole a triumph. It comprises of a series of episodes hung on the dog-lead of a road movie where a US Army Vet with PTSD must cross America with an unruly and fearsome war dog so it can attend the funeral of its handler. The episodes range from a failed threesome, to an awkward stint in a five star hotel where the war dog refuses to bathe in a luxury bathtub, to a kidnapping when Tatum and the war dog (Lulu) stumble across a pot farm In the middle of the backwoods. The variety of the episodes means that the movie is inevitably a little uneven in tone here and there, but the strength of the main premise allows us to forgive that.
There are two main character arcs in the film: Lulu’s and Tatum’s. Lulu progresses from a wild feral animal to being a man’s best friend that is capable of healing the worst excesses of Tatum’s PTSD. It’s a joy to watch, and eminently believable because Lulu doesn’t transform into some sort of soppy pooch, but rather a companion for a warrior.
Tatum’s character arc is more problematic. While Tatum steals the show (even more than Lulu, which is unusual in a “Man’s Best Friend” flick), the curing of his PTSD is condensed into one or two brief scenes at the end. It would have been interesting, and perhaps emotionally more rewarding, to have had a longer and smoother transition here and to have explored some of the challenges around that. As it is, the film jolts a little at this point, which is a shame.
Notwithstanding that, I cried at the end. This film is eminently worth a watch and gets four stars from me. If you want to know how two worthy warriors can rise up from the ashes of their past to save each other, then DOG is well worth a watch.
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