DogMan is a 2023 English-language French psychological thriller/drama film written and directed by Luc Besson.
One night, a wheelchair-bound man named Douglas "Doug" Munrow (Caleb Landry Jones) is arrested in New Jersey while driving a truck full of dogs. Evelyn (Jojo T. Gibbs), a psychiatrist, is sent to the police station to interrogate him.
Through flashbacks, Doug tells the story of his life. First, as a child victim of his father's violence to the point of having lost the use of his legs; his brief time in a juvenile institution where he falls in love with his theatre teacher, Salma, who introduces William Shakespeare to him (he later states that he knows all the playwright's plays by heart); then as the master of numerous rescued dogs helping him steal jewellery and precious objects as well as protect people in need. Doug also reveals he has performed weekly as a Drag Queen in a cabaret act.
Not to be confused with the 2018 Italian film Dogman or the 2025 animated film Dog Man.
DogMan provides examples of the following tropes:
- Abusive Parents: Doug's father was violently abusive towards him (and his mother), locking him up in the dogs' cage when he told him he loved the dogs more than his own family.
- Animal Lover: Doug loves dogs, and he loves the dogs he rescues as if they were his children.
- Bad People Abuse Animals: Doug recalls how his father and brother abused their dogs for fights.
- Better with Non-Human Company: Doug definitely prefers dogs to human company (one can't really blame him considering what he has suffered in his life). They only have one flaw according to him: they trust humans.
- Big Brother Bully: Doug's older brother just went along with their father in the abuse of him, with glee.
- Crossdresser: At some point in his life, Doug became a drag queen.
- Domestic Abuse: Doug's father was violently abusive towards his mother in addition to him.
- The Fagin: Doug trains his dogs to steal precious objects, although never through abuse.
- Happy Flashback: Doug's flashback of his mother cooking and listening to Django Reinhardt jazz... at least until his father interrupted her and threw the record away.
- Loyal Animal Companion: The dozens of dogs Doug took in are entirely loyal to him, since he provides them food and the love he never got to have as a child in his abusive family.
- Parental Abandonment: At some point, Doug's mother (who was 7 months pregnant) had enough of the Domestic Abuse and left the house, but she didn't take him with her. He never held this against her.
- The Stool Pigeon: Doug's older brother ratted him out to their father when he secretely gave food to the starved dogs.
- Time-Shifted Actor: Caleb Landry Jones played adult Doug, while Lincoln Powell played Doug as a child in flashbacks.
- Troubled Backstory Flashback: Doug's recalling of his troubled life to Evelyn is done via flashbacks, from his childhood to where he is now.
- Useless Bystander Parent: Doug's mother did nothing to protect her son from being abused by his father and brother (herself was abused and decided to leave).