The Projector: Dogs on Film (Patreon)

Dogs! Wel love them here at The Next Picture Show (especially dogs that don't wake up at the crack of dawn to chase cats, in case you're reading this, Butter). That's why the other Next Picture Show hosts were excited last year when Genevieve and her husband adopted Lady Bird, a very good dog whose photos (and occasional podcast cameos) we’ve enjoyed greatly. So we were even more excited when they decided to bring a second dog, Jojo, into their home. These are, as the pictures below attest, extremely cinematic dogs. So we decided to have some fun and write about which movies some of Genevieve’s more memorable dog photos brought to mind. We’ll let Genevieve kick off with the one movie she can never not think about when she looks at one of her dogs.

Genevieve Koski:

The Mask (1994)

Within a few days of getting JoJo we received numerous comments about his resemblance to the dog from The Mask. Having not revisited that film this millennium, my assumption was that what was being referenced was a scene where the titular mask briefly wraps around the head of Milo the dog in a manner that resembles the markings on JoJo’s head. After digging up the clip I see he actually also looks quite similar to that dog in its non-masked form, but I still flash to the image of a masked dog causing chaos whenever JoJo has a particularly rambunctious bout of puppy energy.

Labyrinth (1986)

As for Birdie, while there are any number of husky-ish dogs in cinema history to which I could compare her, the thing we get the most comments about are her “Bowie eyes.” And especially compared to JoJo, who is warm and cuddly and kind of goofy, Birdie is cool and independent and a little uncanny in a way that feels similar to how Bowie was often utilized onscreen. In reality she is just as weird and goofy as JoJo, and they play together so voraciously that it’s nearly impossible to get a still shot of them together, but when I do, the contrast between their respective energies reminds me of nothing so much as Goblin King Jareth and sweet, adorable, naive baby Toby.

Scott Tobias

The Artist (2011)

Remember The Artist? Fun fact for your next movie trivia night: It won Best Picture in 2011. Anyway, Uggie the dog was a scene-stealer in the film, a Jack Russell terrier that can walk on its hind legs and pretend like it’s been shot. Though JoJo is not the same breed, they have a similar coloring, with a brown face and white body, and I’m going to assume Genevieve is already working on the pet tricks.

Tasha Robinson

Out (2020)

For me, the immediate touchstone wasn't a movie, but a short. Jojo's coloration and overall plaintive air of angst reminded me so much of Jim the dog in Pixar's Out, from their Sparkshorts series. Granted, this isn't the real Jim displaying all that frantic, strained concern — it's his owner Greg, who's been body-swapped into Jim's four-legged form, and is frantically trying to keep his parents from finding out he's gay, which is even harder for him as a dog than it was for him as a person. I haven't asked Genevieve to check whether Jojo might be a gay human friend or relation trapped in a dog body, but the effect was really temporary in the short, so I'm guessing Jojo just has some secrets of his own. If you insist on a feature-movie comparison, though, I admit my absolute first thought on seeing his pictures was that he looked like a dog got into Willy Wonka's chocolate factory, bypassed Augustus Gloop, and dipped his entire head into the chocolate river.

Keith Phipps

True Stories (1986)

I have yet to meet Jojo and while I understand that puppy has a lot of energy, I'm especially struck with an image Genevieve shared that immediately brought to mind Swoosie Kurtz in True Stories, in which she plays "The Lazy Woman," a character that refuses to leave her bed. Which picture? We'll wind down this installment of our newsletter with it.