Dogman
Magnolia Pictures | Release Date: April 12, 2019 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
71
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 29 Critic Reviews
Positive:
22
Mixed:
7
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Screen DailyLee MarshallMay 17, 2018
Perhaps the most impressive thing about a hugely impressive exercise in directorial control is the fact that we come away from an intensely violent film, a film where bones crunch and blood smells, touched by pathos and a strange sense of hope. Read full review
100
The GuardianPeter BradshawMay 17, 2018
A movie with incomparable bite and strength. Read full review
90
Film ThreatFilipe FreitasJan 11, 2019
Beautifully shot, this character study fascinates in an almost perverse way, building up adequate levels of tension throughout and bursting with disturbing scenes of violence. It is also a tale of solitude, equally tragic and funny, heavy and whimsical. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterDeborah YoungMay 17, 2018
Though it has far less outright violence than Gomorrah, whose oppressive criminal atmosphere it shares, Matteo Garrone's Dogman is just as intense a viewing experience, one that will have audiences gripping their armrests with its frighteningly real portrayal of a good man tempted by the devil. Read full review
83
Original-CinLiam LaceyJun 20, 2019
Dogman is essentially one long, twisted fuse burning toward an inevitable explosion. If the results are too conspicuously manipulated to feel cathartic, there’s no denying a certain dark poetry to this old-fashioned film with its whiplash of modern violence and bitter futility. Read full review
83
The PlaylistJordan RuimyMay 25, 2018
A hyper-realistic urban tragedy Dogman is ferocious and in its own way, much more frightening than “Gomorrah.” Read full review
80
Rolling StoneDavid FearApr 13, 2019
This is where Fonte comes in. An actor who can make Marcello seem like a pitiful beta-male grotesque one second and a noble, sympathetic hero the next, he’s the thrumming motor behind this fairy tale of dogs and monsters. It’s hard to underestimate how his award-winning performance — good call, Cannes Film Festival — shapes the film and sets its humanistic tone. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternApr 11, 2019
There’s a link between this Marcello and the Marcello played by Jean-Louis Trintignant in Bernardo Bertolucci’s seminal “The Conformist,” a functionary ripe for corruption in Mussolini’s Italy. Both men are mesmerized by power, and both movies pose, in different ways, the same question — what happens when no one stands up to tyranny? In the Dogman’s case, another question presents itself. What happens if someone finally does? The answer is surprising, and, like the whole of Mr. Garrone’s film, eerily memorable. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeNov 8, 2018
Fonte, who deservedly won the best actor prize at Cannes this year, is remarkable. Read full review
80
EmpireDavid ParkinsonOct 15, 2018
Abetted by Nicolaj Brüel's prowlingly ominous camerawork and Dimitri Capuani's soul-destroying interiors, Garrone proves once again that even the lowest-rung southern Italian gangster can't afford a shred of human decency. Read full review
80
Time OutPhil de SemlyenMay 24, 2018
Newcomer Fonte is terrific in the lead role, communicating Marcello’s meek protests with a twitchy physicality that grows slowly into a sketchy defiance. Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinMay 19, 2018
Dogman unfolds its relatively straightforward story with both thrilling style and serious moral force: it’s a sensation judged on either bark or bite. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comMonica CastilloApr 12, 2019
Despite its hard message, Dogman comes across as sympathetic for any gentle soul trying to make a deal with the devil. May you heed this movie’s warning and not end up like poor Marcello. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreMar 25, 2019
Garrone makes wonderful use of his diminutive leading man (best known for the film “Asino vola”), and Fonte manages to be both empathetic and pathetic here. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorSep 8, 2018
The naively amenable character is wonderfully observed by Fonte, and early scenes show delicious whimsy and black comedy...but as the film’s numbing brutality takes hold the character’s passivity makes the action drag in places. Read full review
70
The New YorkerAnthony LaneApr 15, 2019
Garrone’s forte, as ever, is to layer the brutish with the beautiful, and to find grace in dereliction. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinApr 13, 2019
Dogman doesn’t have the scale of a major work, but it tugs you in and roughs you up — in a good way! It haunts you long after it ends. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleApr 11, 2019
At its best, when we can live Dogman through Marcello’s eyes, the movie keeps reminding you of that opening, of people and animals, menace and kindness, and the cages we sometimes don’t realize we’ve made for ourselves. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyApr 12, 2019
Marcello may remain a mystery, but the thing that makes Dogman worth checking out is the actor who portrays him. It’s a performance that never barks too loudly, but leaves you with an unmistakable bite. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd May 17, 2018
The lead performance, from the mostly unknown Fonte, is a small symphony of crumbling ingratiation: the portrait of a good man trying to cling to his principles in the face of stubborn, selfish immorality. Read full review
63
Washington PostAnn HornadayMay 7, 2019
As impressive as Dogman often is — not only with Fonte’s Chaplin-esque lead performance, a bleakly evocative setting and moments of winsome humor but with a standout canine ensemble — it never quite delivers on its initial promise. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy BurrMay 2, 2019
The movie convinces us that the hero sees and understands Simone’s evil even as he continues to enable it — even as he allows his own life to be ruined. Dogman ends with a paroxysm of cathartic violence and an eerie echo of Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita” (also with Mastroianni). Read full review
60
The New York TimesManohla DargisApr 11, 2019
Social realism in a symbolist key, Dogman is at times more pleasurable to look at than to experience. Read full review
60
VarietyOwen GleibermanMay 18, 2018
Fonte, it must be said, gives an expert performance as a saintly scamp who “blooms” into a butterfly of vengeance. I might have bought what he’s doing in a different film, but the one that Garrone has made strains too hard to have it both ways. Read full review
60
CineVueMartyn ConterioMay 17, 2018
Involving and well made, rather than something flat-out great and essential. Read full review
58
The Film StageGiovanni Marchini CamiaMay 18, 2018
Garrone’s prowess as a director is still undeniable, and as far as nasty, gripping brutality goes, Dogman certainly delivers. If you’re looking for pulpy violence, you won’t be disappointed. Just don’t expend too much thought over what it’s all supposed to mean. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleApr 23, 2019
So, Dogman is a strange case: Great actor, great character, but a story that’s like an overstretched anecdote infused with art-film portent. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineJesse CataldoApr 7, 2019
The film only succeeds at evoking a firm sense of place and an accompanying air of alluring grotesquerie. Read full review
50
IndieWireDavid EhrlichMay 17, 2018
Subtle as a great dane, and less convincing than a show poodle that’s trying to pretend she’s an untamed stray, Dogman is an obvious and strained little movie. Read full review
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