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Watching a gifted performer take a bite at carefully carved pieces can be entertainment, provided that the performer has a good narrative and/or willing colleagues. Caleb Landry Jones has neither in “Dogman” a sluggish crime story of a disabled owner of a dog shelter who also likes to do drag shows. Jones (in “Nitram,” “Get Out”) plays Doug, pet lover misfit with a twitchy, flamboyant side of his personality that only appears to be well suited to the talented actor. Instead aller sub-decibel levels, Jones pouts and murmurs substituting the dialogue of writer-director Luc Besson’s earless imagery and cheap x-y-z shot movement. It’s soon impossible to relish watching him bellow his way through a lead role that is seldom given to him.
As a cast member, Besson’s (The Fifth Element) Jazz Plays seldom supports Jones without reservation. Besson is frequently Menino Dubestro’s bait and expects Jones to deliver in Doug’s performance, a faintly diabolic diva wannabe who is always on the receiving end of countless pounds of cosmic cruelty. Doug is a depressed martyr, possessing a singularly and endearingly underdog’s nose: of course, the pooch saving, but cosplay as Edith Piaf as well? Besson and Jones never pull Doug together for a compelling character study.
Whereas Jones’s minor parts are concerned, he manages to coast along on his way, with hard looks, which hint at a nearly coy, volatile presence who does things that are spectacular for all the wrong reasons. Jones looks perpetually threatening, sickly, and all mad eyes and scowls that are terribly lackluster. So it is easy to understand why he was selected for the role of Doug, who in the first scene gets arrested for wearing a hideous pink dress with matching gloves and spends most of the movie trying to explain his revolting past to the very compassionate yet shallow police psychiatrist, Dr. Evelyn Decker, (Jojo T. Gibbs).
Jones effectively arms himself with an unfortunate Blanch Du Bois accent from the South as well as a blatant hard stare. Plus, the inseparable physical attempt to portray Doug emanating through incomprehensible raptures of sad monologues to Evelyn makes for quite a sight. Heroes embracing routine actions like these do not charm any further with constant adopting of each particular action, especially not when it comes from such a stupendous lack of empathy Besson’s dialogue is riddled with, and too much cutting done to most of the scenes including Doug and Evelyn’s dialogue pieces.
Evelyn normally leads Doug into more self-pitying reflections about his sorrowful life. Some scattered memories show just how loveable, and sadly neglected, the world can be in the eyes of a martyred survivor like Doug. He’s going to, after all, strut out of his wheelchair with theatrical difficulty, then drape himself around a silhouette of Christ on the cross. “I am standing for you!” he shouts while Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien blasts on the soundtrack.
Doug’s tale of a drab, bare-bones life is not in the least interesting, and it is especially bad when it strays into the drag cabaret nightclub realm of fantasy. There is also far too much tedious, inflected build-up to these scenes. Not a single cliche has been ignored in Doug’s, and the time-wasting reason why his life is such a quirky-sad anomaly. In Jones-less flashbacks, we witness a young Doug (Lincoln Powell) being thrown into a dog kennel by his pharisaical elder brother Richie (wearing a gigantic cross) and being bullied by his anchor-wearing cartoonishly domineering father Mike, a violent pseudo-Christian. These squalid opening scenes are mostly the product of Besson’s acquaintance with stale pulp fiction cliches. Some trained dogs do tricks and, like the rest of us, they also deserve better.
While there is more reality present, the scenes set during the current period of the movie’s dog have less detail. Step Cutaway is set during the movie’s present day, which features dogs along with some antagonistic cliche humans for Doug to deal with. There are some cops along with other blue-collar public workers who threaten to put a halt to Doug’s dog shelter which is independently owned albeit scruffy around the edges. Then there is the pesky insurance claims adjuster Ackerman (Christopher Denham) who is eager to help Doug further isolate himself without human interaction. El Verdugo (John Carlos Aguilar) is a stereotypical Mexican gangbanger that harasses one of Doug’s neighbors but is not presented on screen nor spoken about other than for an early scene. Later on, he gets into some prepackaged beef with Doug. None of these sub-plots give you any information about Doug that Jones’s excruciating performance misses out.
The selection of Jones for Doug’s character could be construed as the film’s most terrible choice, especially with Besson’s apathetic direction and half-hearted efforts in the script. Jones is a twitched actor, which means he requires slower sequences and more ample dialogue to blend in with his effortless acting. He has the uncanny ability to amplify even the softest of murmurs into a megaphone-like whisper, and therefore, never allows you to believe that he is not acting. Doug’s drag scenes best capture the reaction Jones is trying to demonstrate (and failing) – the aggressive playbacks of Piaf singing “La Foule” while Jones lip-syncs is just one example. Doug has the wig, although it’s questionable as to whether it was intended to look bad, and it’s just as baffling as the MC5 trying on the headpieces of La Môme.
Unsurprisingly, his performance has rendered the situation increasingly unbearable. The lip-synch routine does not help showcase his campy character in any way and is hard to take seriously from a melted-on stale parody. He also attempts to adapt stock gestures and wait for a uniform response from the audience, which is strange. Jones does not shoulder the blame for his weak performance all by himself, Besson brings in his own sense of disappointment too. He doesn’t seem to care much for his stars which is ideal for his style, but just like every working actor, Jones needs something worth showcasing to make the effort.
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