by Cain Noble-Davies
Worth: $15.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Channing Tatum, Jane Adams, Kevin Nash, Ethan Suplee, Q'orianka Kilche
Intro:
“Good Dog”
After a solid decade of work together as producer/star or writer-producer/star, Reid Carolin and Channing Tatum of Magic Mike fame have finally dropped the pretense and directed a film together. And much like Magic Mike, its premise is deceptively straight-forward, with Tatum’s Army Ranger Jackson Briggs needing to escort military canine Lulu cross-country to attend her former partner’s funeral.
Pairing up a man with man’s best friend is nothing new, but this film immediately gets points because the relationship between Briggs and Lulu is on a far more even platform than the usual setup. They’re both more familiar with combat environments than the homefront, they’ve both got their share of emotional problems, and even though they’ve both left the war, the war hasn’t left them.
Tatum’s uncanny knack for raw physical performances serves him well here, saying far more about his character and just how much change he goes through on-screen with his body than with any of his words. And as with his staggering turn in Foxcatcher, a lot of that change is the result of pain and self-reflection, going through a series of encounters that force him to reconsider his initial impressions of others and, in turn, himself.
Dog foregoes any highfalutin’ navel-gazing at the nature of military service, instead sticking to the dust-covered reality of what comes next. The struggle to reassimilate into civilian life, to reconnect with old faces, and how all that macho energy that kept them alive on the frontline now needs to be balanced out with honest emotion.
The film may get distracted at times by its own zoomies, but the work that Reid Carolin and Channing Tatum put in is admirable for both of their first times holding the leash. It’s a humble journey film that’s more interested in the beating of hearts than the beating of chests, sharing as many feelings on the aftereffects of military service as it does on men’s mental health in general. Everybody say “Good Dog”.
