Heart of the Beast Review: Brad Pitt's Cheesy Dogmance — SkimNews
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- Heart of the Beast stars Brad Pitt as Belmont, a retired US special forces veteran living in Alaska with his German shepherd service dog Odin, played by four different dogs
- Director David Ayer re-teams with Pitt after their WWII collaboration "Fury," with Cameron Alexander providing the screenplay for the survivalist drama
- A dramatic event forces Belmont and Odin on an on-foot journey across hostile terrain, where the dog actively fights a digital bear and digital wolves — though the reviewer notes visual effects slightly undermine real jeopardy
- Supporting cast includes JK Simmons as a grizzled former goldminer and Anna Lambe as a young woman who enters the story at its very beginning
- The reviewer draws a direct parallel to Pitt's Cliff Booth in "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" — both men live alone with attack-trained dogs on a signal — framing Booth/Brandy as "Mr Hyde" to Belmont/Odin's "Dr Jekyll"
- The reviewer calls the film "a bit cheesy" and says the final moments "will test your credulity," but praises Pitt's emotional climactic sobbing-and-laughing scene
Why it matters: The review positions "Heart of the Beast" as another Pitt-led anthro-canine-mance that works on star charisma despite cheesy sentimentality. For Ayer, it's another pro-military vehicle — IndieWire's "Predictably Pro-Military" headline highlights a political dimension the dominant tearjerker framing softens, while the reviewer's Cliff Booth comparison reveals how the film echoes Pitt's earlier loner-with-a-killer-dog persona.
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