It’s not news-making to assert that theatrical comedies aren’t doing well; though, when Adam Devine recently had an interview quote misinterpreted by social media to that effect, it did go viral. But the crux of his statement was both true and widely known: Marvel’s presence in the industry has helped to make it so that there is no longer any room on the theatrical slate for the mid-budget comedy, or any mid-budget films, really. The “little comedies,” as Devine calls them, are not as sought after by audiences as the big blockbusters, because “little comedies” are the types of films commonly relegated to streaming services in living rooms; No Hard Feelings cannot compete with the scale of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. “There were like 45 comedies in the theater per year,” Devine explained. “So every week or so, there’s a new comedy in the theaters. Now, last year, there was like 6 or 7. It’s crazy.”
Still, despite the largely barren comedic slate, there have been a few beacons. No Hard Feelings actually was a modest hit, as was the dreadful Cocaine Bear. And it was by no means mid-budget, but the success of the incredibly funny Barbie—a film which persuaded some theatergoers back into an AMC recliner for the first time since before the pandemic—needs no repeating. If those successes are any indication, audiences do want to get out of the house and see comedy films on the big screen.
Enter Strays: A proper mid-budget flick led by heavy-hitting A-listers, directed by a guy who helmed a sleeper hit two years ago (Josh Greenbaum, of Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar) and produced by the sure-fire box office duo of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (also, Fast X director Louis Leterrier?). There are a lot of moving parts all coming together which would make it seem like, on the surface, Strays—about a naïve Border Terrier seeking revenge on the neglectful owner who abandoned him—could be another light in the darkness of the 2020s’ theatrical comedy films. Perhaps the celebrity names and premise of “R-rated Homeward Bound” will be enough to coax butts into theater seats. It’s just a shame that the movie itself is not worth the price of admission.
Reggie (Will Ferrell) is a loving little canine obliviously devoted to his hateful, deadbeat master Doug (Will Forte). Doug tries to rid himself of the animal through repeated engagements in a “game” that Reggie refers to as “Fetch and Fuck,” in which a feigned, miles-away round of fetch meant to abandon the animal habitually concludes in Reggie finding his way home and Doug responding derisively by saying “Fuck.” At the end of his rope, Doug attempts one final game of Fetch and Fuck, driving Reggie a whopping three hours away and dumping him in an alley. Of course, Reggie retrieves the tossed ball to find that Doug has left—all part of the game he knows and loves. But this time, Reggie finds that he’s trapped and can’t access the pathway to lead him back the way he came. Suddenly, the little house dog is reluctantly mingling with strays—Sneering Afghan Hound “prostitutes” and Rottweiler heavies—before Reggie is saved by a streetwise Boston Terrier named Bug (Jamie Foxx), whose personality is, of course, bigger than his small stature.
Though Reggie is initially steadfast in his goal to find his way home to reunite with Doug, the newfound camaraderie from his new friends, the human-hating Bug, a Sheltie named Maggie (Isla Fisher) and a Great Dane named Hunter (Randall Park), allow Reggie to get wise to the fact that he’s been abused, mistreated, unloved and ultimately abandoned by Doug. So, Reggie resolves to embark upon, yes, an “R-rated Homeward Bound” and get revenge on the man who hurt him: By finding his way home and biting Doug’s dick off. It’s a mildly amusing twist on the lost pet archetype, but if No Hard Feelings was a throwback sex comedy in all the best ways, Strays is a throwback in all the worst ways: An entire film founded on gags rampant in the mid-2000s, fixated on how funny it is that dogs hump and pee on things. Only, this time, the dogs are slinging curse words, too.
This joke gets old fast, as do most of the “jokes” here, reprieved only by the heavenly 90-minute runtime. There are a small handful of gags that border on clever (the screenplay is credited to Dan Perrault, behind the genuinely great American Vandal). Bug has a long-held conspiracy that humans collect dog poop to turn it into chocolate, which then explains why humans don’t let dogs eat chocolate; Dennis Quaid appears in a silly cameo as himself as a bird-watcher; the dogs monologue their repeated attempts to turn in a circle just the right way to get cozy for bed. Foxx does a great impersonation of a white person voice, while Ferrell counters his most endearing comedy performance in years (Barbie) with a return to the low-effort drivel which he seems to prefer.
A sequence in which the dogs find wild mushrooms in the forest and start tripping balls is probably the best in the whole film, leaning into an absurdity otherwise shied away from in favor of low-hanging fruit. But then there’s the setpiece—in which the dogs, who have devised a plan to escape after being captured and brought to a kennel, all start defecating in unison set to Fergie’s “London Bridge”—on the wrong side of nostalgic: A slice of vulgar and trite lowbrow better suited to a film released the year “London Bridge” first hit the airwaves.
But perhaps it is simplicity and nostalgia for this type of humor which will draw crowds to see Strays this weekend, and despite the meager box office projections and quality of the film, part of me hopes that it does. Strays is bad, but it’s not offensively so—and it’s certainly better and more watchable than something like Cocaine Bear (a low bar to cross, albeit). Maybe we need bad comedies like Strays and Cocaine Bear in order to get more good (or at least better) comedies like No Hard Feelings. And with the no longer deniable decline of the superhero film, it’s possible that we are finally, slowly coming to a better and more hospitable place for lower-budget films in the mainstream—however, most of that optimism is quickly countered by the stubbornness of the studios in the face of the current WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Still, while the film industry is in a bad place, movies like Strays used to flourish there in great numbers. Maybe, despite it all, it would be a sign of a prospering society if audiences can come together to laugh at a dog humping a garden gnome.
Director: Josh Greenbaum
Writer: Dan Perrault
Starring: Will Ferrell, Jamie Foxx, Will Forte, Isla Fisher, Randall Park, Josh Gad, Harvey Guillén, Brett Gelman, Rob Riggle, Jamie Demetriou, Sofia Vergara
Release Date: August 18, 2023
Brianna Zigler is an entertainment writer based in middle-of-nowhere Massachusetts. Her work has appeared at Little White Lies, Film School Rejects, Thrillist, Bright Wall/Dark Room and more, and she writes a bi-monthly newsletter called That’s Weird. You can follow her on Twitter, where she likes to engage in stimulating discussions on films like Movie 43, Clifford, and Watchmen.