Channing Likes Big Mutts & He Cannot Lie

It was weird -- for a movie that is ostensibly a "boy and his dog" picture, tale as old as time, there were about five different reviews I could have written about Channing Tatum's directorial debut Dog, out this weekend. Here is the review I did write for Pajiba, and I stand behind everything I said there about the film being a solid star vehicle for everything we like about Channing Tatum, Movie Star.  But there are also interesting threads within the film to be unraveled that have to do with its relationship toward the military and politics that are at times less flattering -- I see all of that stuff in there too, but it felt to me less like the movie was coming down on a Conservative side than it was actively wrestling with and unsure where it should land on a lot of things. Anyway for a goofy movie about a man taking a dog on a road trip it goes to some surprisingly dark places, and it doesn't stick all of them, but I somehow didn't mind that enough for that to become the focus of my review. I think it presents a conversation, not entirely sure where it fits, but I appreciate it not being the generic trifle it could have easily been and think it's actually very much worth seeing and discussing. All that plus Channing Tatum is in his underwear often. What more does one need?