2023 Venice Dispatch: Dogman

Day 2 of the 80th Venice Film Festival. At this point in previous editions, we have already seen the Roma’s and The Favourite’s, the Gravity’s and the La La Land’s. This year, to me at least, that unmistakable hit remains elusive. To look on the bright side, with today’s premiere of Dogman, at least we got something unabashedly fun and deranged. It’s a horror-fantasy spectacle that doubles as a touching drama about outsiders. No high art by any means, but a unique vision nonetheless that’s elevated by some slick direction and an utterly compelling, prizeworthy lead performance.

We meet the titular character on a rainy night at a roadside police inspection. In the driver’s seat, flashlight reveals a heavily made-up face with smears of mascara and blood, while dogs of every breed pack the back of the van like a small army. The driver, a wheelchair-bound young man named Doug (Caleb Landry Jones) is taken into custody, where he’s questioned by a criminal psychiatrist. Through the interview, we learn about Doug’s extraordinary upbringing and a life among dogs that led to this blood-soaked night.

The framing device is obviously not super inventive – we essentially get a story told in flashbacks – but it sure is effective as writer/director Luc Besson keeps you guessing how the fierce and fearsome Dogman came to be. Well it turns out that, thanks to an abusive, Christian radical family, Doug had a nightmare for childhood where he’s caged alongside fighter dogs for years. While he lost all faith in humanity, it’s the company and unconditional love of his fellow cellmates that kept him going. When Doug finally enters society as a juvenile delinquent with a paralyzed lower body, society doesn’t exactly welcomes him with open arms until he finds refuge at a drag club and learns the craft of transformation. Meanwhile, in order to stay afloat, he runs secret operations from a dog shelter where he spends his days with the only creatures he trusts and understands.

Besson’s screenplay is unapologetically pulpy and wild, straddling genres of social realist dramas and superhero origin stories. The hardships faced by the protagonist are painted with the broadest strokes but you find yourself rooting for him anyway because there’s a truthful, human core to this depiction of life on the margins, of those who never stood a chance. Which, of course, also applies to the doggies – man’s best friends who more often than not get mistreated with no means of defence. As such, it is highly satisfying to see Doug and his canine buddies join forces to teach some human trash a lesson. These scenes are ridiculous and over-the-top, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t get a kick out of watching a disabled man in drag be gangsta and bring the local mob boss to his knees with the help of a pup or two. It’s the ultimate underdog story.

And yes, there’s a prominent queer element to the film that I appreciate. Doug is a character you’d naturally want to refer to as they/them, and not out of political correctness or even self-identification. In this case you simply see how pointless and unhelpful gender can be in our understanding of a person. Doug has had an unreciprocated love affair with a female counselor, otherwise he’s never found romance in life. Among fellow humans, he only feels he belongs when he’s performing on stage dressed as Édith Piaf or Marlene Dietrich. Does the male/female distinction matter in any way to someone so lonely they’re driven to the company of dogs? Do the dogs care?

Among many other things, this character’s queerness is portrayed with perfect sensitivity by Jones. Without resorting to external traits that only reinforce gender stereotypes, he plays Doug as someone who’s barely gone through socialization. Who, in all respects of their personality, is still very much in development, unsettled. The disturbing sense that you can’t put a label – any label – on this person you see is palpable from the moment he appears on screen. There’s both vulnerability and a frightening unpredictability to this portrayal, you never quite know what this character would do next. And yet Jones imbues the performance with such raw humanity you can’t help but empathize. Whether Doug is man, woman, victim, aggressor, hero or villain all seems irrelevant.

Besson’s direction is playful and easy. He doesn’t shy away from blunt choices and shoots many of the fantastical sequences with near-comical vigor. It’s not the type of filmmaking that wins awards but should prove popular with audiences (the press screening I attended was widely cheered). As I noted earlier, I haven’t been entirely wowed by the Venice selection so far. Pablo Larraín’s vampiric Pinochet-satire El Conde – which notably screened last night in the Tár/The Power of the Dog spot – has its moments (especially in the last half-hour), but those delicious bursts of directorial madness feel a little too late to me. Élise Girard’s Sidonie in Japan looks magnificent and answers the question of what a supernatural version of Lost in Translation starring Isabelle Huppert would be like, but the trip goes on too long and the great ideas are stretched too thin for my taste. And just in case anyone wonders, my six-word review of Michael Mann’s Ferrari reads: Penélope Cruz, Penélope Cruz, Penélope Cruz.

Well, there are worrying signs but we are still on day 2 of the festival with many more titles to look forward to. Let’s hope things pick up from here!