Dogman, by Luc Besson: the transvestite criminal who loves dogs

It is the return of Luc Besson, after the rape accusations against the actress Sand Van Roy, who he directed in Valerian and the city of a thousand planets. Director of The perfect assassin AND Nikita presented Dogman in competition for the Golden Lion at the latest edition of the Venice Film Festival (he didn’t win anything), a real rarity because his film is nothing more than an action film with a character who dresses up and has several dozens of dogs (hence the original title) who help him survive.

The protagonist is Caleb Landry Jones (3 ads for a crimewinner of the best actor award at Cannes 2021 for Nitram), who spends his time mostly in a wheelchair – his abusive father shot him when he was a child – and surrounded by 60 dogs.

As I said, Besson returned to action films, but with a small story.

That of a traumatized dog collector who takes on a strange identity, becoming a cash-strapped shooter and avenger of capitalist greed and domestic abuse.

Landry Jones is a quirky indie film, playing libertines (3 crime commercials) or terrifying psychopaths (Twin Peaks: The Returnthe aforementioned Nitram). Douglas in Dogman is like a combination.

The first time we see Douglas Munrow, he is wearing a strapless dress, a slightly disheveled blonde wig, and white makeup. He bleeds from his back and is arrested from the driver’s seat of a car.

The subsequent interrogation has to do with his “condition”, but also with a series of apparently unrelated murders and home invasions. When he is interrogated by psychiatrist Evelyn (Jojo T. Gibbs), he is confined to a wheelchair. The curious thing is that both characters, the accused and the psychiatrist, have points in common, due to past traumas.

Nor will Besson delve into the female character, who is a secondary character. So she will dedicate herself full time to Dogman.

There will be, from that moment on, a cataract of flashbacks, with Douglas as a child, mistreated by his father, a dog trainer, who abuses them, malnourishes them so that they are hungry and fight better, because that is how he makes a life for them . Besson based his screenplay (in English) on an article he read about a French family who locked their son in a cage when he was five.

But, yes, there is a big but, which is the exaggeration of everything (the fights, the deaths, the composition of the protagonist). Douglas takes care of his dogs, which he has adopted from various shelters, and considers them his children.

Caleb Landry Jones fights with dogs to see who looks best on screen. With his orthopedic devices, dressed as Edith Piaf, Marlene Dietrich or Marilyn Monroe, he is the protagonist of this action-packed macho carnage, with a resolution of the type My poor angel.

However, Besson had better moments.

“The Dog Man”

Drama/Action France, 2023. 115′, SAM 16. From: Luca Besson. With: Caleb Landry Jones, Jojo T. Gibbs, Christopher Denham, Marisa Berenson. Rooms: Hoyts Abasto and Unicenter, Cinépolis Recoleta and Pilar, Showcase Belgrano.