Doggystyle: review of the film by Josh Greenbaum

A road movie for dogs that has the surreal and epic irony of O Brother, Where Art Thou? and so the typical incorrectness of this movie, directly related to the partnership of Rogen and Goldberg, amuses and makes us think, piling up reference upon reference, passing through Stand By Me, All American Boys, The Goonies, A Dog’s Purpose, ” Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, however, has found its mark. In cinemas from September 14, distributed by Universal Pictures Italia.

Forget the melancholic sweetness of that line of cinema that, by placing one or more dogs at the center of its narrative, really tried to bring us to tears and emotions represented by titles such as Me and Marley, With my own eyes, Here’s a paw! or again Four-legged journey, all of which are destined to return in a parody vein – now is the time! – inside it’s very funny, although inevitably bitter Like a dog Josh Greenbaum.

Few could have expected that the director Barb and Star go to Vista del Mar a quirky comedy, still inexplicable, he would later make a film like this, and yet it is so.

Thanks to the skill of Dan Perrault, written in a silly and parodic way. American Vandal AND Players, Straysof course, a stronger and more memorable name than ours Like a dog – although there is a lot of talk in the film about “Doggy style” – it does not look incorrect and immoral, as it initially seemed from the very first trailers and clips, but it amuses, convinces and pushes one to think among inanimate orgies, group golden showers, dog erections, psychedelic trips and massacres of rabbits.

Combining the improv comedy skills of performers like Will Ferrell, Jamie Foxx, Isla Fisher and Randall Park with real, live footage of real dogs. Like a dog working on a movie idea that is not at all familiar, therefore in search of sweetness and comfort, but rather a stoner, desperate and caustic dimension of the usual buddy and road movie.

The attempt is to re-read many cult publications, including Brother, where are you? it’s still Stay with me AND All American Boys through the prism of the most wrong and causeless dementia, adapting them to the size of the dog – each of a different size and breed – finding its forte in a very entertaining hunt for a quote, which, if at first glance seems to be shouted out loud Thus, explicit, only later it gradually becomes more hidden, therefore difficult to identify, showing the right direction of a small film with subtly amoral tones and with the inevitable underlying good feelings that, when properly managed, not only does not harm, but also wins.

Strays Club – Rules, Awareness and Strategy

“Rule number one: Do you want something to belong to you? You must do your best, and then it will be yours!
Rule number two: you can fuck whatever you want!
Rule number three and more important than any other: you, you alone.!”

Just after being abandoned by Doug (the new Will Forte), a drug-addicted, nymphomaniac, cruel and outcast owner, Reggie (whose voice could only belong to Will Ferrell), an adorable border terrier convinced that he is called “Shitbag” or ” Nugget” comes into contact with another homeless man, Bug (Jamie Foxx), a couch-obsessed Boston terrier whom, after a sexual and platonic love, he names Dolores, who, above all, teaches Reggie the three fundamental rules of being lost, inevitably changing over the course of the film, but central to the frantic dynamics of his narrative.

However, unlike Reggie, Bug is not alone. In his company are two other long-term strays: an Australian shepherd named Maggie (Isla Fisher) and a Great Dane therapy dog, as well as an ex-cop named Hunter (Randall Park), who is naively convinced that he will never be able to leave. very irritating collar, despite the fact that he does not suffer from any illness or physical discomfort.

Joining forces, the four homeless people begin a journey of acceptance of their own nature, freedom and condition, which draws on both ironically motivational and desperately philosophical discourses and apparently cheerful practices or strategies for living and surviving, which can only culminate in a gigantic group defecation sufficient to in order to turn pale a certain Pasolini movie, which is still frankly impossible to watch.

But if anyone ever tries to imagine a parody of Salo or 120 days of Sodomthis is straight from Like a dog Josh Greenbaum, who is expected to leave.

Corrosive humor and childishly immoral silliness—the R rating (or prohibited for minors) could actually have been avoided—dominate the film’s emotional tones, but it is precisely in the meditation on abandonment and the realization of the loss of that identity of comfort. , safety and protection of the puppy in the family, that Like a dog and so his works offer their best qualities, effectively and sincerely engaging the viewer in long, mature and very clear reflections on the meaning of responsibility, caring and morality.

Like a dog: assessment and conclusion

Dennis Quaid is hilarious as himself, in perhaps one of the most exciting and entertaining sequences of the entire film, which is able to inevitably satirize the whole large group of dramatic and tear-jerking credits, interpreted by Quaid himself, at the center of which is a dog, citing at the same time one of the most successful and memorable moments of your beloved Blackmail of love Anne Fletcher.

Even better is the bloody massacre of rabbits during a hallucinatory delusional journey with an inevitable reference to a cult. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Terry Gilliam, or Reggie’s catharsis of revenge, with the assistance of the entire Stray Club and highlighted in the soundtrack by the now more than famous Wrecking ball Miley Cyrus, and again, what a relief the satire performed by the Greenbaum/Dan Perrault duo compared to the reflective poetic and existentialist drama Me and Marleywhich here returns again and again in a parodic way thanks to the presence of a man who looks like Marley, who is entrusted with the voice of none other than Josh Gad.

Gad’s is Marley, who, sitting in the middle of the crowd, silently watches only his owner, not taking into account other dogs and other people, in the end persistently thinking to himself about how unique, incredible, unattainable and inexplicable the love of owner, again and again receiving insults – and rightly so – from the dogs of the stray club, who, tired of watching him, immediately distance themselves from him.

These elements would be sufficient to enable Like a dog.
Wrong, funny, bitter and unexpectedly clear and realistic film. In cinemas from Thursday, September 14, 2023. Distributed by Universal Pictures Italia.