Rent DogMan (2023)

Weird But Interesting Fantasy Thriller - DogMan review by GI

This is a weird, surrealist thriller from director Luc Besson that is utterly ludicrous but strangely compelling. Much of the film's draw is from the enigmatic central performance from Caleb Landry Jones. He plays Dougie who is arrested, wounded and dressed in drag and with a motorhome full of dogs. A psychiatrist, Evelyn (Jojo T. Gibbs) is brought in by the police to find out what she can about what has happened to him. In interviews Dougie recounts his story of violent abuse at the hands of his father and brother who keep him in the kennel with the family dogs, his eventual rescue by the authorities and his success as a drag artist all the time living with his pack of dogs with whom he claims he can communicate and that do his bidding. The film has the European arthouse look and feel that Besson used in his earlier successes although the story is set in the US. There's a couple of interesting set pieces and Landry Jones manages to convince as the bizarre Dougie. It's an oddity as a film but I couldn't help being hooked.