GamesRadar+ Verdict

Besson’s return to moviemaking has its moments, largely thanks to the versatile Jones. But the dog’s bollocks this ain’t.

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The latest from French writer/director Luc Besson (Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets) is a curious tale of one man and his dog(s). The man is Douglas (Caleb Landry Jones), who has been arrested for an initially unspecified crime. Wounded and bloody, he’s dressed in a blonde wig and a pink evening dress. In the back of his van are his “babies”, a pack of dogs that obey his every command.

In his cell Douglas meets Evelyn (Jojo T. Gibbs), a kindly psychiatrist to whom he soon feels compelled to reveal his backstory… As a boy, Douglas is bullied by his malevolent father and brother and locked in a cage with a posse of canines, who become his friends. Eventually, after an escape that leaves him paralysed, he lives as an outsider, only finding his place via a Shakespeare enthusiast who inspires in him a love of performance and dress-up.

Given its depiction of a lonely soul in the city, some may compare this New Jersey fable with 1994’s Léon, the high point of Besson’s career. Here, Douglas only truly finds companionship with the dogs he surrounds himself with. Their only flaw? Trusting humans, he says. Jones relishes the flamboyance of the character, an avenging angel in a satin gown; although the best scenes come when he’s shorn of make-up, talking one-on-one with Gibbs in the cell, as he spills his (shaggy dog) of a life story.

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Where the film really fumbles is in its urge to inject bouts of ultra-violence, from the overcooked scenes involving Douglas’ father and sibling to the subplot centred on a vendetta with a local gangbanger who’s extorting money from locals. When Besson unleashes the dogs of war, it all becomes rather tedious - a shame, because the idea of a pup-loving Pied Piper has merit. Just for good measure, he even throws in a Robin Hood-like procedural (involving stolen jewellery) and an overly-zealous cop (Christopher Denham). It’s a big old mess of a movie, in other words: flawed and (sometimes) fun.

Dogman's US and UK release is TBC.

James Mottram is a freelance film journalist, author of books that dive deep into films like Die Hard and Tenet, and a regular guest on the Total Film podcast. You'll find his writings on GamesRadar+ and Total Film, and in newspapers and magazines from across the world like The Times, The Independent, The i, Metro, The National, Marie Claire, and MindFood.