Universal Pictures
It’s been a minute since the last truly vulgar R-rated comedy came along, but the time seems ripe for a new one hitting cinemas just as Summer is drawing to a close. And could there be a better way to enjoy the last vestiges of the dog days of Summer than by spending 93 minutes with a pack of potty-mouthed pooches? You might be surprised to learn that this is definitely the best way to beat the heat and have a few laughs at the same time.
Strays comes from, as the poster states, ‘the humans who brought you Cocaine Bear and 21 Jump Street‘, so you have to expect it’s going to be outrageously funny. (I might also add the humans behind The LEGO Movie, the ‘Spider-verse’ films and TV’s The Last Man on Earth and Brooklyn Nine-Nine also have their hands in the mix. For a movie about dogs, this is a decent pedigree!) The story starts like any rom-com as Doug (Will Forte) and his girlfriend get a new puppy, but things go south quickly when the puppy wants to play with a stretchy new toy — a pair of unidentified panties. Doug tries to explain they’re a Christmas gift … but it’s June so she’s not buying it and she packs her things to leave. Doug prevents her from taking the dog because it’s the one thing she likes. Now saddled with a dog he truly hates because he interrupts Doug’s ‘personal time’, he decides to take the dog to a field so he can toss the dog’s favorite tennis ball far into the field … and then he takes off. But the dog always finds his way back home, believing the game they are playing is called ‘Fetch and Fuck’ because that’s always Doug’s reaction when he returns home.
Doug finally has enough and drives three hours out of town and into a big city, tosses the ball down a dark alley, and hopes for the best. This time the dog finds it more challenging to get the ball, but when he does he also realizes that this is the farthest Doug has ever taken him, and the other dogs he encounters may not be as welcoming as he expects. Encountering two large dogs that are about to gleefully tear him apart, the little dog is rescued by a small Boston terrier named Bug (Jamie Foxx), who appears fierce but shoos his friends away so the new arrival can feel safe. We finally learn the dog’s name is Reggie (Will Ferrell) — although Doug had a few more colorful names for him — and Bug shows him around the city, introducing him to his favorite sofa (Sofia Vergara), Shetland collie Maggie (Isla Fisher) and Great Dane Hunter (Randall Park). They take Reggie under their paws and introduce him to Scraps Night, where they pounce on any piece of food a human might drop, and the four form a bond. But Reggie is still determined to bring the ball back to Doug because that’s what Doug wants, and Bug and friends finally convince Reggie that Doug purposely left him there to get rid of him. Reggie insists that’s not the case, and he remembers some landmarks along the way that can help him get home. The other three reluctantly join him and share in some hilarious and emotional moments on their journey but Reggie surprises them when he finally admits he’s only going back to Doug to bite his dick off, because he plays with that thing more than he ever played with Reggie. But Doug was about to move after getting an eviction notice so will the pack get there in time, and will Reggie actually go through with it if they do?
I have to admit that Strays was not high on my list of movies I needed to see but I will take what I can get since the studios don’t seem to think the Baltimore area is worthy of getting advance screenings much anymore. I was mentally prepared for sheer stupidity, but writer Dan Perrault and director Josh Greenbaum crafted the opening scenes so well that I almost thought this was going to be a drama. They couldn’t have cast a cuter dog to play Reggie (some sort of wire-haired terrier, maybe), but he is adorable and he immediately tugs at your heart when you see what a jerk Doug is. I really felt bad for Reggie, and that is the genius of the writing because if you don’t connect with that dog right from the start, there is no movie. Once you’re invested in Reggie, you are more willing to go along with all of the comedic antics that are to follow, and there are some doozies that include a ‘magical’ (and comically horrifying) night in the woods, and a daring escape from an animal shelter. There’s also a very off-to-the-side plot point about a missing Girl Scout that does come back around in the last act of the film so don’t forget about that. Perrault’s script is peppered liberally with the F-word — so prudes beware — scatological humor, and not-so-subtle sexual innuendo (and really, you can’t call any of it innuendo as it’s more in your face), but the story has a great big heart too, and if you aren’t getting just the slightest bit misty-eyed at the end then you just aren’t a dog person. I can’t imagine the chore Greenbaum had in directing animals — and I’m curious to know how much of what we saw were real animals and how much was CGI — but he gets some great performances out of all of them. The animation on their mouths as they speak is also spot on, that lower lip curling under just perfectly every time they say that F-word.
The voice cast is also perfection even though you may spend a lot of the time trying to figure out just who some of the voices are. Of course we know Will Ferrell is Reggie, and there probably wasn’t anyone better to give voice to that pup, bringing a whole lot of that Buddy the Elf innocence to the role even when much more adult situations are going on around him. I never imagined Buddy using the F-word … but now I can. Jamie Foxx brings a street toughness to Bug, but he’s also great in the more tender moments when he’s trying to watch out for his new friend. Isla Fisher is perfect as Maggie, and Randall Park is very funny as Hunter (even though for the entire movie I thought it was Bowen Yang). And whoever thought to cast Sofia Vergara as a sofa needs an award. Will Forte really has perfected this self-centered asshole character to the point that we are all hoping Reggie gets back to him in time to give him what for. And there is a very funny surprise cameo from a major star in a weirdly funny moment.
All in all, I really wasn’t expecting much from Strays, hoping for a few laughs here and there but no substance, just a turn off your mind kind of movie. What it delivered was a barrage of non-stop laughs, great performances by the dogs and the cast voicing them, and a great big heart that will make you want to go home and cuddle up with your ‘good boy’ if you have one, and perhaps make you consider adopting if you don’t. Strays was a surprise, it’s funny as hell, and it will give you the warm fuzzies.
This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movie being covered here wouldn’t exist.
Strays has a run time of 1 hour 33 minutes, and is rated R for pervasive language, crude and sexual content, and drug use.
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