Strays, 2023.
Directed by Josh Greenbaum.
Starring Will Ferrell, Jamie Foxx, Will Forte, Isla Fisher, Randall Park, Josh Gad, Harvey Guillén, Brett Gelman, Rob Riggle, Jamie Demetriou, Sofía Vergara, Mike Dolphy, Jimmy Tatro, Greta Lee, Phil Morris, Jack De Sanz, Jaquita Ta’le, Charity Cervantes, Jade Fernandez, Mikayla Rousseau, Dan Perrault, Aven Lotz, Keith Brooks, Hedy Nasser, Dexter Masland, and Dennis Quaid.
SYNOPSIS:
An abandoned dog teams up with other strays to get revenge on his former owner.
This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strike. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, Strays wouldn’t exist.
In the crude but smartly subversive Strays, Doug, pathetically played by Will Forte, is one of the worst dog owners. Dreading taking Reggie (voiced by Will Ferrell) home from the second his girlfriend expresses interest in adopting a furry companion, he is also a nasty, narcissistic human being to everyone and everything, including cheating on that girlfriend, which Reggie inadvertently reveals to her. Now, Doug almost has nothing, ready to sell off his house, spending each day rigorously masturbating and verbally abusing Reggie, whom he refers to with various cruel expletive-laced obscenities.
Perhaps even more horrifyingly awful is that Doug has begun playing “fetch” with Reggie, driving him to isolated areas, sometimes nearly an hour away from home, tossing a tennis ball as far as he can, presuming that the dog he blames for everything that has gone sideways in his life will never find his way back home, only to slide the bong away from his mouth and defeatedly exclaim “fuck” when Reggie accomplishes the seemingly impossible. During this opening montage that perfectly threads the needle between heartbreaking and hilarious, the typical narration is found in talking dog flicks, courtesy of Will Ferrell putting his naïve routine to effective use. Reggie believes that this behavior is normal and a test of love, that Doug does this out of affection, and that it’s all a fun game.
Coming from director Josh Greenbaum (responsible for the irreverent Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar, a deeply unfunny comedy save for one outrageous song, albeit a movie that did find an audience despite my minority opinion), and screenwriter Dan Perrault, the metaphor here for toxic, abusive, gaslighting relationships is not exactly subtle, but it works well also showing that there is more in the mind of Strays than aiming to be as crass, juvenile, vulgar, and shocking as possible.
That’s one way of saying that Strays is an anti-prototypical dog movie. As a matter of fact, it’s a raunchy comedy that actually brings in Josh Gad for a voice cameo segment for a direct takedown on soapy, manipulative garbage like A Dog’s Purpose, who does deserve kudos and credit for reprising a similar narrator dog role and rolling with the punch (the big punch line to the scene is even funnier.)
Essentially, there comes a point when Doug drives Reggie hours away from home while arranging things for his move back home with his parents, where he not only throws the tennis ball this time but locks the dog in an alley. This starts a chain of events where Reggie encounters and befriends some titular strays, primarily a scrappy small dog named Bug (voiced with energetic freedom by Jamie Foxx) who, to quote Dennis Hopper in Blue Velvet, seems willing to fuck anything that moves.
Bug then introduces Reggie to an injured, coned, former police dog (Randall Park’s Hunter) who, despite his size, is a shy and kind dog. He is also timid and carries romantic feelings for skilled sniffer Maggie (Isla Fisher). They share an infectious camaraderie as the three strays get up to various hijinks in an effort to prove that being alone and free has its benefits.
It’s not long before Reggie realizes that Doug is an abusive jerk with no love for him, causing the dog to vow that not only will he return home one final time, but that he will bite his owner in his most prized possession body part; his penis. A crude take on Homeward Bound ensues, where it would be a disservice and not true to call Strays lazy for bringing forth a lowbrow sense of humor.
Yes, there is plenty of fecal matter, attempts to fuck inanimate objects, F-bombs, and inedibles consumed as food, but there is also an effort to set those jokes up in the confines of a situation commenting on a dog’s experience, whether it be a sequence involving fireworks or accidentally murdering another animal. Anyone that writes Strays off as a series of shock value gags and obscenities is a snob not looking hard enough, unwilling to engage with the cleverness of the material driving those jokes.
Most crucial to the film’s success is how committed to the bit the story is; this is not a movie where human characters misguidedly enter the frame to push along the narrative. It is established within five minutes that Doug is an asshole, and from there, an equally committed voiceover ensemble takes over, eliciting as many laughs as there is dog poop on display. There are no copouts or misplaced emotional redemption arcs here, although there is a brief moment where things feel slightly repetitive, including one revealed backstory that is a bit too cliché for this take on dog movies. For the most part, Strays is a clever crowdpleaser that follows this simple story to its logical, grossly, and hilariously riotous conclusion.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
