When I watched Dog in theaters a few years ago, I realized I have zero tolerance for sad animal movies. It was marketed as a comedy, and some of it may have been funny. Ultimately, I found then entire movie about a dog with PTSD and an incorrigible man disturbing. Sure, the dog didn’t die at the end, but I didn’t see anything to be happy about.
I had a similar experience with Smile a few months later. The first half of the movie was uncomfortable and disturbing. When the protagonist found her dead cat gift wrapped in a box, I seriously considered walking out of the theater. Fortunately, it became a standard, silly horror movie after that, but I wasn’t tempted to come back for Smile 2.
Recently, knowing nothing about the movie except that it was a horror, I went to a friend’s house to watch Good Boy. When the first scene depicted a sad, frightened dog, I wondered if I should leave immediately. Good Boy turned out to be quite tolerable though. The movie depicted a dog’s worst nightmare told from a dog’s perspective. I found it really interesting. And secretly, I wanted to coo at the screen the whole movie, “Look at that good boy!”
So for those of you with a similar sensitivity to animal movies, don’t be afraid to give Good Boy a watch.