Channing Tatum's 2022 Box Office Hit On Netflix Is The Perfect Movie For Animal Lovers

"Dog," the 2022 film starring and co-directed by Channing Tatum — and also co-starring a beautiful Belgian Malinois (actually three of them: Zuza, Britta, and Lana 5), named Lulu in the film — is a great film for animal lovers, particularly if they've ever loved a dog. Though Tatum is best known for movies like "21 Jump Street" (which he only agreed to do on one condition), "Magic Mike" (which he's still willing to return to), and "The Lost City," "Dog" represents a different kind of movie. Trailers billed it as a comedy about a man and a dog on a road trip, but while "Dog" has moments of levity, it's actually far more dramatic and introspective.

The movie focuses on Tatum's Jackson Briggs, a former Army Ranger who's suffering from PTSD. In order to get his captain to sign off on his going back to the battlefield, he agrees to take Lulu, his former colleague's service dog, to his funeral. With no one available to adopt her, and her suffering from PTSD, she's set to be euthanized afterward. But as Briggs makes his way across the country with Lulu, he begins to see something more in her — and she in him — that makes them perfect for each other.

Though the story is fictional, it was inspired by a real road trip Tatum took with his dying Catahoula pitbull mix, also named Lulu, in 2018. Tatum's dog had cancer, and their road trip together would be inevitably heartbreaking, but that didn't mean they wanted to make "Dog" similarly sad. "It was the end of a relationship that inspired us," Tatum's co-director Reid Carolin told Yahoo!Entertainment, "but we wanted to make sure that we told a story about the beginning of a relationship ..." To make it clear, "Dog" is not a movie where the dog dies at the end, which is a line most viewers won't cross.

There was a second inspiration for the story as well. "Dog" co-directors Channing Tatum and Reid Carolin were previously executive producers of the HBO documentary "War Dog: A Soldier's Best Friend," and they were motivated by their work on that film to make a fictional movie about soldiers and their canine companions. As a topic, PTSD looms large in "Dog." Briggs is seen early in the movie, huddled on the floor, clearly suffering. Lulu's deceased handler is said to have had PTSD problems, too. But it's Lulu's PTSD that is the biggest problem. Because of her issues, no one wants her, and Briggs wonders where the sweet animal he met on assignment went.

Lulu has all sorts of troubles because no one knows how to handle her. She has to wear a scary-looking muzzle, tears up the front seat of Briggs' car, and otherwise causes mayhem because she can't be trusted. But the other side of that is that she can't communicate that she has the same issues as a person who's experienced what she has. 

When an employee at animal control comments on her panting being because of anxiety, it gives Briggs pause. And when Lulu lies down on top of Briggs to comfort him after a seizure, he grows further attached. In the end, we learn there is no such thing as a bad dog, just dogs that we humans don't understand yet. "Dog" is a testament to the sometimes long and difficult work of curating the dog-human bond, and the joy that comes with having a loyal best friend by your side.