Eye For Film >> Movies >> AJ Goes To The Dog Park (2024) Film Review
When a small film makes as big a noise as this surreal fable by Toby Jones, which has wowed festival audiences, one can’t help but get curious as to what’s going on. Does its bite measure up to its bark? A sequel of sorts to 2006’s AJ Goes To France, this latest adventure takes a little while to get going, but once it has done so, it keeps one-upping itself all the way to the end.
Few people, real or fictional (and star AJ Thompson is a little of both) seem to lead such perfect lives. AJ’s needs are simple. He has a comfortable home and an undemanding job. He enjoys buttered toast, cycling, and going to the dog park with his two small canine companions, Diddy and Biff, who travel to and from it in a specially designed rucksack. Then one day, to his horror, he arrives at his favourite spot only to find that it has been taken over by people working at computers, who chase off his dogs using a leaf blower. It is now a blog park. Complaining gets him nowhere, and it becomes apparent that the only way to get it changed back is to successfully run for mayor.
The film then follows a hero’s journey of sorts, as it emerges that the local mayoral office is awarded only to people who can outdo the incumbent mayor in the performance of a number of tasks. Naturally AJ, being just an ordinary guy (though he does have extraordinary elbow strength), is not well positioned to achieve this, but he manages to find himself a mentor and undertake some training. The challenges are themed around popular Nebraskan pursuits: fighting, fishing, scrapping, scraping and sapping. Don’t worry if you don’t know what all these are. He doesn’t either.
It’s a decidedly quirky tale of the sort that will infuriate some viewers, who will feel they’ve been egregiously ripped off – but if you like that sort of thing, you’ll be in your element. Though it may seem unemotional at first, it builds its characters stealthily and has a lot of heart, remaining open to the possibility of solutions and friendship in unexpected circumstances, though there are still lessons to be learned. Then in the final act, everything veers dramatically off course in a way that nothing can prepare you for, lurching between genres to deliver a burst of energy and action that guarantees it will stick in your mind.
A true original, AJ Goes To The Dog Park turns apparently mundane events into a ripping yarn, delivered with verve and deadpan wit.
Reviewed on: 23 Jul 2025
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