Strays director Josh Greenbaum

The AU Review

When Peter Gray last spoke with director Josh Greenbaum it was in conjunction with the trailer release for his foul-mouthed, furry-friended comedy Strays, a subversion of the dog movies we know and love, about the complications of love, the importance of great friendships, and the unexpected virtues of couch humping.  When Reggie (voiced by Will Ferrell), a naïve, relentlessly optimistic Border Terrier, is abandoned on the mean city streets by his lowlife owner, Doug (Will Forte), he is certain that his beloved owner would never leave him on purpose. But once Reggie falls in with a fast-talking, foul-mouthed Boston Terrier named Bug (Jamie Foxx), a stray who loves his freedom and believes that owners are for suckers, Reggie finally realizes he was in a toxic relationship and begins to see Doug for the heartless sleazeball that he is. Determined to seek revenge, Reggie, Bug and Bug’s pals - Maggie (Isla Fisher), a smart Australian Shepherd who has been sidelined by her owner’s new puppy, and Hunter (Randall Park), an anxious Great Dane who’s stressed out by his work as an emotional support animal - hatch a plan and embark on an epic adventure to help Reggie find his way home … and make Doug pay by biting off the appendage he loves the most. (Hint: It’s not his foot)  Now, as the film prepares to be let off its leash for all to enjoy, Greenbaum checked back in to touch on the film's limits (or lack thereof), his favourite gag, and which of the Strays quartet he most identifies with.

Transcript

00:00 Peter Gray from the Ag Review. Hello, Josh. Hi, how are you? Good. The last time we spoke

00:09 was when the trailer dropped. Yes, I recall. And one of the things was I had to tell you

00:16 if I related to any of the dogs in the film. Yes. I think I'm a little bit of a hunter.

00:23 Me too. I have a little hunter. I've got a little hunter in me. I'm a little Reggie and

00:28 a little hunter. I love that. Yeah. I think because I like it's like one of those things

00:34 where I went through something to finally find my voice and then it was just like, F

00:38 everybody. That's why I was like, yeah, I think I can relate to that. So that's good.

00:41 Yeah. Oh, I love that. I love that. Oh, that's awesome. I mean, that was kind of my hope

00:45 too. We talked about it last time, but like, yes, it's a movie about dogs and their relationship

00:50 to humans for sure. But really, I hope you also identify and people identify. No, it's

00:55 actually a movie about humans. All four of these characters are going through things

00:59 we all go through and hopefully everyone can come out and be like, who are you? What dog

01:04 are you most like? So I love that. The like toxic relationship side of things. I was like

01:10 this movie went a lot like deeper than I thought. And also went a lot darker, I will say. Certain

01:18 things at the end of the film, I was like, we're actually showing it. We're actually

01:23 going to go there. I was like, you know what? In a film like this, like pun unintended,

01:28 you pretty much have to like go balls out for this one.

01:31 I think so. And that was part of the appeal when I read the script the first time was

01:35 like, OK, it didn't hold back when it could. And I totally would respect a film that decided

01:42 to hold back. I understand why in certain ways, but it's like, no, you know, without

01:46 giving anything away, we you know, when we go there, we've got to go there. And so that

01:50 was that was certainly a big component as to what I loved about it.

01:53 And I think also like not giving other things away. There were certain cameos in this film

01:59 that because I like they were related to another dog movie. Yeah. Yeah. OK. I was like, that's

02:07 got to be what this is. I loved it so much. And it made me think there are so many great

02:13 like background visual jokes in this like, you know, the the the bird boxes in the book

02:20 and and the fact that one of Will Forte's moving boxes just says "Munchux" and it's

02:26 spelled wrong. I picked up on that. I like that. Is there any like little visual joke

02:34 for you that you kind of were very proud to get in there?

02:38 I mean, you hit on my maybe my favorite one of my favorite jokes in the movie, and it's

02:43 a little sounds terrible because I did think I pitched it. So it sounds incredibly narcissistic,

02:49 but I still am very proud of it regardless of that. But the one that does get me laughing

02:53 is the bird book, the idea that Dennis Quaid's book just says bird, bird, bird, bird, bird,

03:01 and that he hand filled the book out. Right. Because I like to think about how was this

03:05 book made? Well, he filled out an entire book with boxes that just says bird. And then when

03:10 he goes to check them off, he doesn't just check off any box. He like finds the box that

03:15 speaks to him like none of it makes sense. And that's why I love it. So there are many

03:19 jokes I love it. That one a little a little like kind of absurdism is always goes a long

03:24 way for me. Yeah. And I think the fact that like, you know, Dennis Quaid has like Dennis

03:29 Quaid seen some shit. And like I was watching Jaws three recently and I was found out that

03:35 he was like high on cocaine that entire movie. So I'm like he has seen some shit. I think

03:39 it's great. No, but I as I said, like when when I watched the trailer, like it was it

03:46 kind of that trailer took me to places I wasn't expecting. The film in general does that as

03:50 well. But it's also just made me love my dog that much more. So I came home because I was

03:55 like, I hope you say nice things about me. So, yeah, no, I just want to say congratulations.

04:00 Like you always have made incredible like the funny films to me. So I'm very, very happy

04:06 that this one sort of paid off. Oh, man, that means a lot. Thank you. Yeah. Hopefully I

04:11 can do it again. But right now, I'm yeah, I'm psyched for this one to finally get out

04:15 there. And as you know, from Barbra and Starr, it was like, oh, that got pandemic. So here

04:20 we are on my first kind of film to go out in the theaters and be out there in the world

04:25 and I'm really excited for people to see it. And I hope if nothing else, that they have

04:29 a really kind of fun time at the cinemas, you know, with hopefully their pack. You know,

04:34 I definitely want people to bring their bring their crew, bring their pack, bring their

04:37 friends and just have a fun night out. I think you'll definitely, definitely get that one

04:42 going tonight. Thank you so much. Yeah. Thank you. Good to see you again. You too. All right.

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