The Dog Lover

The Dog Lover is a 2016 American drama film written by Alex Ranarivelo and Ali Afshar, directed by Ranarivelo and starring Allison Paige, James Remar, Lea Thompson, Jayson Blair and Christina Moore.^[1]

The Dog Lover
Poster
Directed by	Alex Ranarivelo
Written by	Ali Afshar Alex Ranarivelo
Produced by	Tag Mendillo Mandli Reno
Starring	Allison Paige James Remar Lea Thompson Jayson Blair Christina Moore
Cinematography	Rueden Steinberg
Edited by	Brett Hedlund
Music by	Jamie Christopherson
Release date	July 8, 2016 (2016-07-08)
Running time	101 minutes[1] 102 minutes[2]
Country	United States
Language	English

Plot

The film depicts an idealistic college student sent undercover by an animal welfare organization to investigate a puppy mill, and eventually becoming disillusioned with the welfare organization, which is presented as unethical.^[3]

Cast

• James Remar as Daniel Holloway
• Lea Thompson as Liz Holloway
• Jayson Blair as Will Holloway
• Michael King as Trevor
• Christina Moore as Cassie Sumpter
• Ali Afshar as Raymond
• Annabelle Kavanagh as Abigail Holloway
• Cullen Douglas as Vincent Bogel
• Matthew Glave as Mr. Gold
• Kathleen Wilhoite as Mrs. Gold
• Sherry Stringfield as Jackie McConnell
• Allison Paige as Sara Gold

Release

The film was released on July 8, 2016.^[1]

Reception

The film has a 20% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 10 reviews.^[4] Glenn Kenny of RogerEbert.com awarded the film two stars out of four.^[5]

Owen Gleiberman of Variety gave the film a positive review and wrote, "Rescue-dog purists may not approve of the line The Dog Lover takes, yet to this dog lover it comes off as compassionate and realistic: a plea for a place where good care can become common sense."^[2]

Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a negative review and wrote, "...it’s all as clunkily melodramatic as it sounds, with the climactic trial sequences proving particularly slow going."^[1]