Good Boy review
Good dog. Great movie.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Good Boy
Directed by Ben Leonberg
Written by Alex Cannon and Ben Leonberg
Starring Indy
Good Boy Review
A few full moons ago we looked at the 1996 movie Bad Moon. It’s a middling werewolf story whose best aspects revolved around a dog protecting his family. The story was based on a novel told from the dog’s perspective. The movie doesn’t follow suit. It was easy to see that as a missed opportunity given how much more interesting the canine star was than the human characters. But…it’s not how movies are generally made. While we were discussing that…Good Boy began to tear up the festival circuit. Six months later, Good Boy is now in theaters everywhere. An initially planned limited release was quickly expanded due to interest in the film’s first trailer. Bad Moon’s dropped ball is Good Boy’s great success.
The story is as simple as the premise suggests. It’s a haunted house movie from the perspective of a dog. That doesn’t mean the point of view of the dog…it’s not a movie full of low angle shots to match the dog’s eyeline. Instead, we see what the dog (Indy) experiences. With an owner oblivious to any strange goings on…Indy is left to experience this nightmare for himself. Strange noises and spooky images surround the dog. We even see some of his nightmares.
If that sounds like a gimmick…it basically is. But it’s not all that Good Boy is. There’s backstory scattered throughout Indy’s journey. Some of it is related to the health of his owner. Some of it suggests that history is repeating itself. Indy and his owner move into his deceased grandfather’s home in the woods. Video tapes and apparitions inform us that this story may have played out before. Grandpa’s loyal dog Bandit occasionally appears as some kind of guide for Indy as he attempts to understand what is going on.
The first two-thirds of Good Boy plays out variations of this. Indy searches the house for answers to what’s haunting him. Sometimes he sees a demonic like figure who seems to get closer at every meeting. Sometimes he’s unable to get into the parts of the house where the noises come from. Good Boy doesn’t cheat with its canine protagonist. He’s a dog who can only do dog things. Even if he is smart enough to track down information and escape dire situations…he does so with the abilities of a real dog. Mostly because he’s played by a real dog. A dog without any proper training for acting.
A bonus feature at the end of Good Boy gives us a glimpse into how that all worked. Indy (whose real name is also Indy) is the real life dog of director Ben Leonberg. The movie was shot over a three year period taking care not to overwork and overwhelm the dog. It’s remarkable what Leonberg and Indy were able to accomplish shooting sporadically around their own home. It makes those first two acts an impressive gimmick to watch unfold. The magic of Good Boy, however, lies in its final act.
You may become distracted by the simplicity of Good Boy’s story. Even if you are invested in the gradual stream of information that Indy uncovers…you might not be waiting for it to add up to all that much. It adds up. In fact, it adds up beautifully. Given the nature of how the story is presented…we’re always going to understand more than Indy does. There’s no way around it. Things that confuse a dog will make sense to human viewers far more quickly. There’s just no other way to present information without making Good Boy’s destination feel completely out of nowhere. It’s a difficult balance to strike but Good Boy finds it. The result is a beautiful, emotional, finale capable of putting a lump firmly in your throat.
That’s why I began this review by saying that Bad Moon’s missed opportunity is Good Boy’s greatest success. It doesn’t just put us in a dog’s point of view. It puts us into a dog’s emotional state. Confused, frightened, loving and loved. What’s happening in this haunted house will make sense by the time the credits roll on Good Boy. Some of the smaller moments connected to the past will as well. A tightly plotted script that keeps you as grounded on four legs as possible. A brilliant design with something to say beyond its gimmick.
Scare Value
You may be tempted to dismiss the concept of Good Boy as nothing more than a gimmick. Even if you do…a haunted house story from the perspective of a dog is a good one. Good Boy spends most of its time feeding into that idea. A gimmick for a haunted house movie where not that much really happens. In its final act, however, Good Boy ties its narrative, gimmick and themes together so beautifully that it recontextualizes everything you might dismiss as gimmick to essential viewing.
4/5
Good Boy Link
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