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“DogMan” is Luc Besson’s latest film, which premiered at the 2023 Venice Film Festival in the main competition. Besson is best known for his 1994 film “Leon The Professional.” His new film combines drag, canines, and genre thrills in unsatisfying ways, hobbled mainly by an unsteady grip. Fortunately, “DogMan” is led by a spectacular Caleb Landry Jones, who holds it together to some degree. The actor has a terrific gift for conjuring unease and discomfort. He knows how to put the viewer on the edge. The film taps this particular talent in ways that veer to predictability, but Jones renders finely judged emotional touches that ensure a performance holding surprise.
DogMan (2023) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
“DogMan” begins with the cops stopping a truck. The setting is New Jersey. On the news, there’s talk of a missing armed man in his thirties at large. The driving woman is reluctant to get down, who turns out to be a man in disguise, smeared with blood. He is whisked to a detention center. Despite repeated questioning, he is unwilling to open up. A psychologist is sent for. Dr. Evelyn Decker ( Jojo T. Gibbs) arrives at the center, considerably irate that she has been summoned at such an untoward hour. She is a single mother whose husband often stalks the neighborhood in spite of a court injunction instructing him to keep his distance.
It is to Decker that the person reveals his long, troubling story. Douglas, or Doug as he calls himself (Caleb Landry Jones), has had a vicious childhood. Relayed to us in elaborate, extended, and slightly discolored flashbacks, we learn that his father was a dog trainer who often starved them to brace them for fights. His father was abusive and brutal, never holding back from beating his uncomplaining wife.
Doug’s brother, Richie, tried to curry favor with the father to stay in his good books and not suffer his wrath. Doug took a proclivity to the wretched, mistreated dogs, secretly feeding them morsels. Richie noticed it and informed the father, who was enraged and demanded Doug to answer if he loves the dogs more than his family. Doug responded in the affirmative and was instantly put away in the cage with the dogs. The father declared it to be his residence from there on.
The film cuts to another timeline showing us Douglas in glorious drag at his place, surrounded by an army of dogs. A timid Juan (Michael Garza) comes knocking, telling him about the exploits of a gang led by El Verdugo (John Charles Aguilar), who has been demanding protection money from store owners. Doug’s beloved laundromat woman, Martha, has also been intimidated but she does not have the money, therefore Juan has come on her behalf seeking help. Doug immediately sends out a dog who whisks a phone to El Verdugo. In a comically absurd scene, the dog unleashes himself on the man’s testicles as Doug demands an agreement not to mess with Martha anymore. Put in a tight spot, the guy agrees but harbors a vengeance, which is kept away until the climax.
How does Doug escape from the cage?
Most of Doug’s schooling happened through the bunch of fashion and women’s magazines that lay bundled in the crevices of the cage. One day, one of the dogs has puppies. Richie detects it and once again scurries off to tell his dad. As Doug protests, the father shoots, hitting him. A wounded Doug dispatches one of the dogs with a piece of a severed finger. The dog skilfully guides the cops to the house. The father and brother are put away in prison. Doug loses his mobility as the bullet enters his spine. He could stand and attempt walking, but this only increases the possibility of his death.
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Doug goes through a series of social security homes but doesn’t manage to make any friends except for an acting rookie teacher, Salma (Grace Palma). Salma introduces him to Shakespeare and the pleasure of performance, helping him see the power in disguise, especially how it can have liberatory potential when he is displeased with his own reflection. Doug is besotted with her, hoping to proclaim his love to her when Salma leaves suddenly to pursue her acting aspirations. Doug follows her career intensively, finally landing at one of her performances on Broadway after many years. He doesn’t expect her to remember him, but she does. She is thrilled to see him, and for a brief while, he strokes the possibility of expressing his love. His hopes get brutally dashed as she introduces her partner. Devastated, he returns to his dogs.
The dog shelter he manages gets an order of shutdown owing to state budgetary cuts. He takes the dogs with him and puts up lodging in the entrails of a dilapidated house tucked away from open view. Doug skulks around looking for jobs and lands at a drag show. He gets a weekly gig to perform, channeling Edith Piaf and lip-syncing to a bunch of classical songs. Doug also starts planning robberies of wealthy houses with his dogs, calling it a redistribution of wealth.
DogMan (2023) Movie Ending Explained:
How does Doug get caught?
Doug continues his streak for a while, but one attentive cop detects the trail of dog links in the string of reported robberies. The cop lands at his room, planning to get him nabbed; however, Doug’s dogs tear him to shreds. Doug is further perturbed by the re-emergence of El Verdugo and his henchmen, who sneak into his lodging, raining bullets. Yet again, the army of dogs put up a solid fight, orchestrating a complex mechanism to annihilate everyone. Doug does get them all killed but eventually gets apprehended by the cops, tying to how the film began. Dogs have been his constant support and biggest arsenal, but he realizes it is time for him to go, finally accepting his vulnerability and letting himself up for God as he stands on his feet, the pain eventually crushing him to death. As always, his dogs remain at his side.