Weekend film reviews: ‘Dog Man,’ ‘Companion,’ ‘Love Me’

Written by Amy Ta, produced by Eddie Sun and Nihar Patel

“Dog Man” features a half-dog, half-man cop facing off against a villainous cat. Credit: Youtube.

The latest film releases include Dog Man, Companion, Love Me, and Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story. Weighing in are Katie Walsh, film reviewer for the Tribune News Service and the Los Angeles Times, and William Bibbiani film critic for the Wrap and co-host of the Critically Acclaimed Network.

Dog Man

Based on author Dav Pilkey’s popular kids’ book series Dog Man, this animation features a half-dog, half-man cop facing off against a villainous cat named Petey. Pilkey is known for silly, over-the-top humor. He also created the Captain Underpants series. 

Walsh: “This is super fun. It feels like a story that a dad might have made up, and then a kid wrote into a little crayon sketchbook. And the animation style really maintains that … childlike charm to it. It looks like it's drawn with crayon at times, and it's these simplified characters. But the emotions and story that is going on here is actually quite moving. A lot of it is about finding family, and nature versus nurture. And Dog Man, in his transformation, becoming half man half dog, he loses his family, and he's seeking connection, even though he's a super cop in his little town. It's very silly. It's very irreverent. But Pete Davidson voices the evil supervillain cat Petey, and he has a redemption arc. So it's not ‘all cats are evil.’ There's a very cute little kitten. It is almost too chaotic and too frenetic at times, but I think parents will be entertained as much as kids.” 

Bibbiani: “It's a very whimsical universe, and sometimes it does get very, very manic. But a lot of the humor is very dry, very pun-centric. And I appreciate that. … It sags a bit in the middle. It's not very a propulsive story. But other than that, it's really quite sweet.”

Companion

Josh (Dennis Quaid) and Iris (Sophia Thatcher) seem like an ordinary couple on a weekend vacation, when strange twists happen, revealing that Iris is a sex robot. The plot also involves a who-dun-it murder mystery. 

Bibbiani: “This movie is delightfully demonic, and I'm a huge fan of it. It's very funny. It's very scary. It actually delves into some relevant material about toxic relationships, and the way people try to possess their partners. … [Dennis] Quaid has the ability to control his girlfriend's intelligence. So what's gonna happen when she finds the controller and turns that all the way up? … He plays a real sleaze, but he's wonderful in it. Sophie Thatcher's wonderful in it. It's got a great cast. It's a great sci-fi horror comedy.”

Love Me

Kristen Stewart and Steven Yeun are cast as a buoy and satellite that fall in love. The two also play live-action and CGI-generated versions of themselves in parallel universes.

Walsh: “It's this post-humanity earth, all that's left is a satellite orbiting, looking for life forms. And this ‘smart buoy’ … which is voiced by Kristen Stewart, becomes attached to the satellite, and ends up … catfishing the satellite. The images from the last dregs of the internet, which is obviously an influencer and her boyfriend who make YouTube vlogs … that's all that's left from the internet. … The buoy latches onto this image and creates a profile, and then they turn into Sims-like creatures, and then they become real people through means that aren't really explained. 

… I think this is the type of movie that wants to pose a lot of really profound questions about artificial intelligence, and consciousness, and how machines can have humanity and potentially ‘become real.’ I don't think it gives us any answers to those questions. … This one just really didn't do it for me. I just don't think this movie knows what it wants to say. And it also, weirdly feels very dated.” 

Bibbiani: “This is an allegory for: We are living in a world where we are told what's normal. We are shown what to do. We are shown what relationships look like, and how we're supposed to perform all of these functions of normality. And then when we actually try to connect with people, and that's all that we have to filter that connection through, it becomes insincere, and our lives are, well, crap. … If all of humanity had left was its … popular culture, how do we expand beyond that, and how do we once again regain our humanity? So for me, that was the part that really connected. I think Kristen Stewart and Steven Yeun are really good in this. It's mostly an animated movie. I think maybe it would have been stronger as a short, maybe it might not have enough material for a feature, but overall I liked it.”

Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story

This documentary centers on Liza Minnelli, a pop culture icon who’s won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award. 

Bibbiani: “Daughter of Judy Garland and filmmaker Vincente Minnelli, came from this huge show biz background, and your mother had a lot of tragedy in her life. And you know what, Liza Minnelli turned out pretty good. And I think that's one thing I like about this documentary, is that it opens not with being born or anything like that. It opens with Judy Garland dying. It's basically saying: Once mom was out of the picture, Liza Minnelli was able to form more of her own identity. … The rest of it's very fawning, and it's hard not to be. She's really quite talented, that Liza Minnelli. She could sing, she could dance, she could act. … By all accounts, seems like a really lovely person. It was really interesting seeing some background and history that I hadn't seen before.”

Walsh: “It does start with her mother's death, and then it talks about the mentors and the friends that she had along the way who not only supported her personally, but created the iconography of Liza. … This is a movie about Liza … as a really good friend, as someone who was friends with her collaborators, who found family with her collaborators. … It was about how she made herself distinct from her parents. … She never had her own children, and she's been married a bunch of times, but she has a really strong, beautiful, found family in all of her friends. … It's not an innovative doc, but it is very entertaining if you love old Hollywood and … and showbiz and razzle-dazzle.”

Credits

Guests: