Strays - Review: Doggies Say Curse Word, Cue Laughter

 

There really isn’t much about “Strays” that needs to be said beyond a summary of the film’s overall vibe. It’s an R-rated take on the cute talking dog movies we’ve seen crop up over the past decade or so. It’s produced by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the guys behind “Clone High,” the “21 Jump Street” movies, and “The LEGO Movie.” There’s clearly a comedic verve on display here, and it’s likely no surprise that if you’ve found those previous films funny, you’ll find this one funny as well. But if not, there isn’t much here to latch on to.

Following Reggie, voiced by Will Ferrell (“Step Brothers,” “The LEGO Movie”), the film showcases his attempts to get back to his loathsome and abusive owner Doug, played with cartoonish villainy by Will Forte (“Clone High,” “The Last Man on Earth”), and befriends fellow stray Bug, voiced by Jamie Foxx (“Ray,” “Baby Driver”), and honorary strays Maggie, voiced by Isla Fisher (“Wedding Crashers,” “Hot Rod”), and Hunter, voiced by Randall Park (“Ant-Man and the Wasp,” “The Interview”), to help him make his journey back to his owner.

Directed by Josh Greenbaum (“Barb and Star Go To Vista Del Mar,” “Too Funny To Fail”) and written by Dan Perrault (“American Vandal,” “Players”), the film has all the kinds of jokes you’d expect from a movie that proudly plasters its R-rating right on the poster. There are bits about the dogs getting drunk, getting high, peeing, pooping, having sex. If just making a joke would get a film an R-rating, then you’d bet your tail its in this film. That’s not a bad thing, as the kitchen sink approach can often work well in comedies like this.

However, the film is far funnier when its humor is relying more on satirizing the talking dog movie, rather than simply giving its four-legged stars the same material from “The Hangover.” Bits about fireworks, “narrator” dogs, couches, and pounds are legitimately funny and inject the film with a satirical edge that’s missing in much of the other humor. It makes the film feel like it has a lot of peaks and valleys, but thankfully the case helps to smooth that over.

Ferrell, Foxx, Fisher, and Park are all great together, with some fantastic banter and chemistry in the film’s third act. Forte is, again, just supervillain levels of despicable and he clearly wears that kind of overacting with pride. There are a handful of other human cameos that exist more as jokes in themselves, and they’re amusing enough. Towards the end, when the film unexpectedly grows an honest heart at its center, the main furry foursome does a fantastic job at selling it all, and it ends up becoming a film with an underlying metaphor about abusive relationships.

Don’t mistake it for high art though, as while those themes are certainly there, they aren’t exactly nuanced. The film occupies this weird kind of uncanny valley space with its entire atmosphere. It feels like an SNL skit that just happens to be 90 minutes long. No, not a movie based on an SNL skit, just a super long skit. It’s hard to describe, but watching a real dog say, “My name is shitbag,” with detailed and articulate mouth movements, its just a weird experience to say the least.

“Strays” is a weird movie. It’s at its best when it leans more into the satirical nature of its tale, and the voice acting is pretty excellent, with Forte as a great villainous presence. But so much of the humor is just “dogs doing crude/R-rated things” and that bit grows tiresome after about fifteen minutes. It’s certainly funny, but it’s hard to see this as a film remembered for much more than a couple decent laughs in a year’s time. Quite a long time for its furry stars at least. 3/5