“Wherever there is an unhappy person, God sends a dog.” We needed the revived French director Luc Besson to give us a shot of adrenaline and make us cry like fountains. Dog manin the Venice 80 competition, should in no way be confused with the film of the same name Matthew Garrone from 2018. Another dog idea (an almost metaphysical consequence for the Roman director, here a central symbol of justice and goodness between living beings), but the same poetic urge for personal and total control over the film work. Dogman begins with the suspense of a thriller about a possible serial killer. Intuitive red herring to understand who this sinister, wounded, emaciated guy is dressed as Marilyn (Caleb Landry Jones), who drives a truck full of dogs on a rainy night in New Jersey and is arrested by the police. The psychiatrist Evelyn comes to clarify the man’s identity (Jojo. T. Gibbs), who has problems at home with her stalker ex-husband. The confrontation between the two in the cell begins with long flashbacks explaining who Douglas is, now free of makeup and dirt. As a child, his terrible and violent father threw him into the cage in the yard as punishment and too much love for dogs, where the parents keep dozens of animals in a disgusting condition. After many weeks he manages to escape. Take revenge and rebuild a lonely life with dozens and dozens of dogs that protect and adore him.
However, due to his father’s violence, the boy ended up in a wheelchair and could only stand for a few minutes, risking a fatal spinal cord injury. borderline character, Frankenstein freak More Edward Scissorhands than Phoenix’s Joker (he wears very rigid braces on his legs), a kind of Robin Hood-style vigilante justice (“I help others and others help me”) comes to Douglas one evening a week the rounds by singing in women’s clothing – performing in a drag queen club. Meanwhile, in this old, abandoned building where he lives among dog hybrids of all breeds and sizes, the boy must equip himself with traps, weapons and animal attacks against shady characters and criminal gangs whose toes he has stepped on and who want to take him out . “Dogs have all the virtues, no vices and only one flaw: they trust men,” Douglas explains to the psychiatrist.
Dogman is therefore a teeming, claustrophobic action film full of violence (not about dogs, in fact) and gore, but with a sweet heart that warms the souls of the last and outcast, and a disruptive and vindictive bottom-up political vision. Besson, who also wrote the film, brags with all due respect Serge Daney, with a sophisticated technique on a compositional and rhythmic level that inspires like in the good times of Leon and Nikita. In addition, I am not satisfied with the rapid progression of the story, with a perfect B-movie atmosphere in the American style (the film is shot in OSVP, that is, in virtual production on the set), as well as with the mastery of direction and picture design dogs, By forcing them to act sensibly without giving in to the sentimental shortcut à la Disney, the 65-year-old French director allows himself ironic brushstrokes about his Frenchness/minority: The first singer who imitates Douglas on stage in an extraordinary way is Edith Piaf; The teenage protagonist in an institute recites Shakespeare, but also a scene from Joan of Arc. After all, the real catalysts of the gaze are the pack of protagonist dogs (notably a Doberman, a Jack Russell, a Chihuahua, and a few creepy couch-cushion dogs) and Landry Jones, who magnetically draws attention to that body and face raped , suffering, limping, who become one with the animal being. For Italy, Lucky Red will be distributed from October 5th.
Also read Cinema | By Davide Turrini.