No pun intended - Dog Man is actually a perfect and fitting title. Although some may take issue with the gendering of the main character ... or may take issue with ... the character not being entirely committed to one gender. You'll understand if you watch the movie - and the amazing central performance! John Wick would also approve I am certain of it.

The main character - flawed and really with quite the backstory, is what makes this movie. Of course if you are way too sensitive ... it may also be what breaks the movie. You have to be open minded to say the least. They say do not work with kids or animals ... in movies that is. But while I have no idea if they had issues during the shooting of the movie ... the result does look good. They may have all been ... good boys! Which can not be said about (all) the human (characters) in the movie ... quite the opposite is true.

There is also a lot of religious stuff in this ... which is a bit weird considering it also has elements that the church would never agree or promote ... but that is Luc Besson for you I reckon ... still really well made and if you suspend your disbelief enough ... a lot of "fun" you can have watching it.

To start off, this movie seems to split the audience a bit. My group of friends, whom I saw this at a sneak peak with, had mixed opinions. Although generally positive, some liked it less. It is definitely in the art house/indie spectrum of films and thus might not be for everyone. It also has near-zero ambitions of being realistic, a fact that you just have to accept if you want to enjoy this movie.

But oh boy, is it fantastic! It is very artful, but not "artsy" in the sense that it feels forced or like an experimental film project that's barely worth watching were it not for it's art style. Instead, it delivers a full and well-rounded feature film, in which the art style feels like an extracurricular you get as a free bonus gift. Just because they can. The art style is "very over the top". From a perfectly trained army of dogs via over-exaggerated cliche characters to intriguing visuals and action scenes. And the intensity continuously increases as well, ending in a big, absurd finale. The story focuses on a broken, abused and deranged man finding his way in life and his company in dogs. Throughout his life story, we meet various characters that are vividly introduced to us from his clinically insane point of view. We get to experience his coping mechanisms with the abuse he suffered and the damage it has created in him by seeing the world through his eyes for two hours. This somewhat dark and serious story goes very well with the sometimes comical art style and reminded me a bit of Bojack Horseman to be honest, not just because of the animals.

Dogman shines with brilliant acting, a fast-paced plot and absolutely stunning imagery. Every scene is perfectly fitted out to match the character we get to meet in that particular scene. And of course... excellent use of dogs as co-stars.

Short review: This was the third Secret Screening at Fantastic Fest this year. When it was announced I had never heard of it and had to do a quick IMDb search to find out what I was in for. It didn't really sound like my kind of thing, but I went in with an open mind hoping to be pleasantly surprised. It was a middling film. It had some good stuff, it had some bad stuff. But for the most part, other than a great performance by Caleb Landry Jones, it was pretty forgettable.

The film takes the approach of: who could hate dogs? It gets a lot of its brownie points from close ups of dogs making cute faces. It works, but it's also a little cheap and easy.

I heard mixed things about this after the show. Some saying it their favourite of the fest, others saying their least favourite. I can see it being quite a divisive experience. For me it was somewhere in the middle. 6/10.