“When man is in trouble, God sends him a dog.” Alphonse de Lamartine

Set in New Jersey, Caleb Landry Jones stars in the action thriller film DogMan, as a man who was abused as a child by his violent father and viciously thrown to dogs. Instead of attacking him, the dogs came to protect him and became his allies in life.

Also starring in the film are Jojo T. Gibbs, Christopher Denham and Grace Palma

Release Date

Directed by Luc Besson (The Fifth Element, The Professional), DogMan world premiered at the 80th Venice International Film Festival, and will be released in select theaters March 29, 2024, before expanding on April 5, 2024.

Synopsis

From acclaimed director Luc Besson (The Fifth Element, The Professional), DogMan tells the story of a man who, following a traumatic childhood, finds salvation and justice through his connection with dogs.

On a journey to heal from childhood trauma and physical injury, Douglas seeks to find his own path, even if it means bending societal rules, gender and going overboard with his love of dogs.

Luc Besson in a statement, commented, “The inspiration for this film came, in part, from an article I read about a French family who threw their own child in a cage when he was five. This rose the question of what that does to a person mentally. How does someone survive and what do they do with their suffering? I wanted to explore that idea with Dogman. Suffering is something we all have in common, and the only antidote against it is love. Society won’t help you, but love can help to heal. It is the love of the community of dogs that Dogman has built that are the healer and the catalyst.”

He continued, “Dogman wouldn’t be the film it is without Caleb Landry Jones. This complicated character needed someone who could embody the challenges, the sadness, the desire, the strength, the complexity.”

Reviews

Giving the film 2 of 5 stars, and describing it as “the most ludicrous film you’ll see all year, maybe ever” in their review, Guardian wrote, “Now, if you close your mind to the possibilities of film and write off imaginative gambits as “ludicrous” without ever having really given a bold vision a chance, it’s not great; cinema should be an art where the ostensibly ludicrous can take flight and flourish. All that said, and all due respect to the originality and commitment displayed here, but this is as ludicrous a film as you’ll see all year, maybe ever. I’m sure there’s a way to make this theoretically fun premise work better, but regrettably Besson hasn’t found it.”

Variety review similarly described the film as a “Ludicrous Howler,” writing “Maybe “Dogman” would be salvageable if Besson didn’t feel the need to thuddingly explain every single aspect of Doug’s quirk-laden personality, as though every last thing that a person is can be traced in a straight line back to a cause, because psychology is a long division sum that never leaves a remainder. Doug makes his family among dogs because he dad told him the dogs were his family. Doug believes in God because who else would have sent him these dozens of dogs, one for each of his troubles? And Doug dresses up in women’s clothes because there were a bunch of women’s magazines back in the cage, and then a pretty social worker/actress taught him Shakespeare and make-up at one of his homes, ok?”

Official Trailer

Watch the official trailer for DogMan