A Dog YearMovies like A Dog Year
- Key Features:
- Writers block, Emotional distance, Second chance, Personal growth, Redemption, Rural setting, Finding purpose, Dysfunctional family, Animal rescue
- Tone:
- serious, restrained, earnest
- Target Audience:
- Dog lovers, Viewers interested in character-driven stories, Fans of dramas about personal growth, Audiences seeking heartwarming narratives
- Emotional Arc:
- Isolation → Connection → Healing
A Dog Year

Jon Katz is close to burnout. He's a writer with writer's block; his wife has left for her sister's because he's emotionally distant; he rarely answers his phone. A kennel sends him a border collie that's undisciplined because of abuse. Despite a series of mishaps, Jon decides to keep trying with the dog, and he rents a dilapidated farm house to give the dog room to run. A local handyman refers Jon to a woman who might be able to help him train the dog. Reluctantly, Jon gives her a try. Is the dog the problem, or the owner?
A Dog Year
A dog finds the meaning of his own existence through the lives of the humans he meets.

A dog goes on quest to discover his purpose in life over the course of several lifetimes with multiple owners.

On their way to start a new life at a sheep farm in rural Virginia, the Turner family are halted by a wreck on the highway that has claimed the life of a truck driver. Spotting the trucker's now-abandoned collie on the side of the road, they take pity on the dog and adopt her. As the city family copes with the change to rural life, including a feud with a neighboring farm family who resent the city interlopers, the ever-loyal Lassie helps them adjust to their new surroundings.

A dachshund passes from oddball owner to oddball owner, whose radically dysfunctional lives are all impacted by the pooch.

Six years after saying "I do," Olive and Clay call it quits. Although they split amicably, both want custody of their beloved dog Wesley and they end up in court. With everything at stake, can man's best friend find a way to reunite the couple?

In the film, Solo is a down-on-his-luck writer who is encouraged by his psychiatrist to get a dog. Solo meets his love interest, who he assumes to be a dog owner when meeting her at a dog play park, but dog problems stand in their way.

When Maggie gets an emotional support dog to help quell some of her anxiety, she finds him to be even more effective than she imagined... because unbeknownst to her, he kills anyone who adds stress to her life.

Anna is stuck: she’s approaching 30 and has just moved back to her rural home-town, and into a shed in her mother’s backyard. She spends her time working a menial job at a local boating center and hides in the depths of her imagination, making movies with her thumbs. Irritated by her childish behavior, Anna's mother insists that she move out of her shed and on with her life. When a troubled young boy starts hanging around, the two form an unlikely bond. Through their strange yet mutually beneficial friendship, Anna slowly begins to confront her perpetual state of arrested development.

A divorced writer from the Midwest returns to her hometown to reconnect with an old flame, who's now married with a family.

All Lauren Bradley, a single mom and confirmed workaholic, wants this holiday is a much deserved break. Those hopes are dashed when she runs into fellow single dad Ben who enlists her help in taking care of a cute and cuddly christmas present he plans to give his daughter. Through all the chaos and calls from work, Lauren just might get the best gift of all, the holiday spirit.

The mother of a severely traumatized daughter enlists the aid of a unique horse trainer to help the girl's equally injured horse.

Veterinarian Dr. Carly Monroe makes it a habit to stop by the local dog shelter as often as possible because she loves dogs and secretly loves the shelter’s owner, Dan. Unfortunately, he has agreed to marry his glamorous TV personality girlfriend and move to the Big Apple. With Dan’s big move looming, his sister decides to take matters into her own hands.

Workaholic Thomas Johnson dies in an auto accident and reincarnates as a dog. Remembering some of his previous being, he returns to his wife and son to protect them from the man who caused his accident. But, as time goes by, his memories return, and Thomas realizes he wasn't such a good husband and father.

A domineering but charismatic rancher wages a war of intimidation on his brother's new wife and her teen son, until long-hidden secrets come to light.

Clover is finishing a veterinary course when her brother dies and she is called home to her family's struggling Somerset farm.

After receiving an exciting new job opportunity at a cutting edge Pet Invention company, Robert, his teenage daughter Jenna and their trusty and special border collie Charlie make the move to the new neighborhood, right before Christmas. Upon arriving, Robert meets his gorgeous next door neighbor Holly, and her sassy and spunky border collie Gidget. Before the sparks can fly, they are set upon my Robert’s conniving and obnoxious next door neighbor and project manager Victor, his neighborhood bully bulldog “Vinnie P” and the sycophantic sidekick Chihuahua “Jose”.

The harmony of a seemingly idyllic neighborhood is disrupted when a dog attacks a young girl.

Stella is a clumsy, cynical, imaginative and tormented teenage girl. After a life-changing car accident involving a dog, she convinces herself she must count her age in dog years: one year of her life counts for seven, and now that she’s turning sixteen, she is a centennial. For this reason, Stella thinks she has not much time left to live and pens a bucket list of all the things she would like to achieve before she dies.

The adventure of Bella, a dog who embarks on an epic 400-mile journey home after she is separated from her beloved human.

An army ranger and his dog embark on a road trip along the Pacific Coast Highway to attend a friend's funeral.

A near-penniless drifter's journey to Alaska in search of work is interrupted when she loses her dog while attempting to shoplift food for it.

A boy, obsessed with comparing himself with those less fortunate, experiences a different life at the home of his aunt and uncle in 1959 Sweden.

New York City writer Iris finds her comfortable, solitary life thrown into disarray after her closest friend and mentor bequeaths her a Great Dane named Apollo. The huge dog immediately creates practical problems for Iris, from furniture destruction to eviction notices, as well as more existential ones. Yet as Iris finds herself unexpectedly bonding with Apollo, she begins to come to terms with her past, and her own creative inner life.

Sportswriter Andy Farmer moves with his schoolteacher wife Elizabeth to the country in order to write a novel in relative seclusion. Of course, seclusion is the last thing the Farmers find in the small, eccentric town, where disaster awaits them at every turn.

Spoiled 21-year-old Luce Lockhart faces a tough decision when a handsome new friend asks her to help protect a dog park from her wealthy employer.

Five animals meet regularly to discuss their inner angst in a group therapy session led by Dr. Clement, a canine psychotherapist. The group includes Lorraine, a leech who suffers from separation anxiety; Cheryl, a praying mantis who can’t seem to keep a man; Todd, a pig with an eating disorder; Jeffrey, a bird with guilt issues; and Linda, an obsessive-compulsive cat.

Ottone, a professional dog sitter who's uncertain about most things in life, asks an analyst if he made the right decision love-wise while recounting the significant relationships he had with four women.

A police officer faces a personal meltdown following a divorce and the death of his mother.

Just as Mike is on the heels of closing the biggest deal of his career, he's pulled away from his bachelor life in the big city to a farm in rural Ohio in order to help his recently orphaned nephews find a new home.

Following a breakdown and suicide attempt, an aging actor becomes involved with a much younger woman but soon finds that it's difficult to keep pace with her.

The story of a woman who loves her dog more than her husband. And then her husband loses the dog.

Two romantic burnouts, Jane and Will, are immediately drawn to each other at a mutual friend’s wedding. After a disastrous hookup in the coatroom, the two spend the next 24 hours together, trading candid confessions of messy histories and heartbreak, on the off chance that this fling might be the real thing.

When his beloved dog goes missing, a young man embarks on an incredible search with his parents to find him and give him life-saving medication.

After a bad breakup with his girlfriend leaves him heartbroken, Carter Webb moves to Michigan to take care of his ailing grandmother. Once there, he gets mixed up in the lives of the mother and daughters who live across the street.

To find his therapy dog, a 17-year-old escapes from juvie and embarks on a journey of reconnection with his brother and grandmother through Cantabria.

A newly married couple, in the process of starting a family, learn many of life's important lessons from their trouble-loving retriever, Marley. Packed with plenty of laughs to lighten the load, the film explores the highs and lows of marriage, maturity and confronting one's own mortality, as seen through the lens of family life with a dog.

After learning he's getting neutered, a dog has 24 hours to squeeze in one last balls-to-the-wall adventure with the boys.

Edee, in the aftermath of an unfathomable event, finds herself unable to stay connected to the world she once knew and in the face of that uncertainty, retreats to the magnificent, but unforgiving, wilds of the Rockies. After a local hunter brings her back from the brink of death, she must find a way to live again.

A young man with a bright future suffers a near-fatal accident and recreates his new life with the help of an unlikely animal friend.

Precocious young Harriet and her older sister Gwen live at their mother's motel in small-town New Hampshire. Harriet dreams of a life beyond her inattentive family and the stultifying town. A mentally disabled man named Ricky comes to stay at the motel, and Harriet finds him kinder and more interesting than anyone she has ever met. After tragedy strikes, Harriet and Ricky cling to each other ever more tightly.

After failing to find success as a writer in New York City, Jim slinks back to his family's home in the Midwest to lick his wounds. But his visit is quickly complicated when his angst spreads to his brother, Tim, who promptly decides to drive his car straight into a tree. Under the shadow of his sibling's injurious actions, Jim strikes up an unlikely friendship with Anika, whose centered small-town wisdom gradually rubs off on him.

Soon to be a father, Mark feels the pressure of domestic responsibility closing in, so he is more than happy to accept when his old friend Kurt proposes a camping trip in the Oregon wilderness. During their time together, the men come to grips with the changes in their lives and the effect on their relationship.

In the affluent, gated community of Camelot Gardens, bored wives indiscriminately sleep around while their unwitting husbands try desperately to climb the social ladder. Trent, a 21-year-old outsider who mows the neighborhood lawns, quietly observes the infidelities and hypocrisies of this overly privileged society. When Devon, a 10-year-old daughter from one family, forges a friendship with Trent, things suddenly get very complicated.

The story of Bea Johnson from birth to graduation as she navigates life with an intellectually disabled parent and an extended family who can't quite agree on the best way to help.

Friends, family, and lovers struggle to find love, forgiveness, and meaning in an almost war-torn world riddled with comedy and pathos.

Billy Coleman works hard and saves his earnings for two years to achieve his dream of buying two red-bone coonhound pups. He develops a new trust in life as he faces overwhelming challenges in adventure and tragedy roaming the river bottoms of Cherokee country with his dogs, Old Dan and Little Ann.

A recently engaged woman's life is thrown into turmoil after confessing to her fiancé that she once experimented with bestiality.

Sebastian, a man in his thirties, works a series of temporary jobs and embraces love at every opportunity. He transforms, through a series of short encounters, as the world flirts with possible apocalypse.

After a life-changing diagnosis, a promising chef finds hope and humor with the help of a fur-midable dog friend.

When 11-year-old Riley moves to a new city, her Emotions team up to help her through the transition. Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust and Sadness work together, but when Joy and Sadness get lost, they must journey through unfamiliar places to get back home.

Henri is a middle-aged writer with fading inspiration who has published nothing worthy of note in years. Feeling increasingly misunderstood by his wife and four grown up deadbeat kids, he dreams of running away to start over again. Yet when he discovers an unattractive, bad-mannered dog in his garden, he decides to adopt him and both start developing an unexpected friendship that inevitably upsets Henri’s family and neighbors.

Eddie, a struggling animal trainer and single dad suddenly finds himself the personal wrangler for a large and lovable St. Bernard whose fabulous movie "audition" catapults the dog to stardom. However, a trio of unscrupulous ne'er-do-wells have plans to kidnap the famous dog and hold him for ransom.

Eight-year-old Cody is spending the summer in an unfamiliar setting with his mom Kathy. Though he can't relate to the neighbourhood kids, things take an unexpected turn when he develops an unusual friendship with grouchy old Del from next door.

A dog that helped soldiers in Afghanistan returns to the U.S. and is adopted by his handler's family after suffering a traumatic experience.

Great Dane Marmaduke epitomizes the overgrown lapdog, with an irascible streak and a penchant for mischief that is tempered with a deep sense of love and responsibility for his human family, the Winslows. The new animation is set in the world of elite dog shows, rife divas, rivalries and slapstick comedy.

Hector is a quirky psychiatrist who has become increasingly tired of his humdrum life. As he tells his girlfriend, Clara, he feels like a fraud: he hasn’t really tasted life, and yet he’s offering advice to patients who are just not getting any happier. So Hector decides to break out of his deluded and routine driven life. Armed with buckets of courage and child-like curiosity, he embarks on a global quest in hopes of uncovering the elusive secret formula for true happiness. And so begins a larger than life adventure with riotously funny results.

Spencer is a cat person. Laura is a dog person. Spencer is headed to a beach town to work on his thesis. Laura is coming to the same beach town to escape the shambles of her life. Their personalities couldn’t be more different, but when a reservation screw up lands them – and their pets – in the same vacation rental house, they all have to figure out how to get along with each other.

A woman snaps and assumes the psyche of a vicious dog as her checked-out, philandering husband attempts to keep the family together.

Determined not to turn into her parents, or be drawn into any relationship longer than a one night stand, Zoe constantly struggles with her failing business and love life. Then she falls in love for the first time with Paul. But there's one problem: Paul is married.

A woman's chaotic life becomes more complicated when she inherits her grandmother's dog.

When his only friend dies, a man born with dwarfism moves to rural New Jersey to live a life of solitude, only to meet a chatty hot dog vendor and a woman dealing with her own personal loss.

Nina Geld's passion and talent have made her a rising star in the comedy scene, but she's an emotional mess offstage. When a new professional opportunity coincides with a romantic one, she is forced to confront her own deeply troubled past.

Everybody has one—the sibling who is always just a little bit behind the curve when it comes to getting his life together. For sisters Liz, Miranda and Natalie, that person is their perennially upbeat brother, Ned. But as each of their lives begins to unravel, Ned's family comes to realise that Ned isn't such an idiot after all.

A woman lives in a small village in Russia. One day she receives the parcel she sent to her husband, serving a sentence in prison. Confused and angered, she sets out to find why her package was returned to sender.

An old villager deeply in love with his cow goes to the capital for a while. While he's there, the cow dies and now the villagers are afraid of his possible reaction to it when he returns.

James Bowen finds himself the target of an animal welfare investigation that threatens to take away his beloved cat, Bob, at Christmas.

J.C. Wiatt is a talented and ambitious New York City career woman who is married to her job and working towards partner at her firm. She has a live-in relationship with Steven, a successful investment broker who, along with J.C., agreed children aren't part of the plan. J.C.'s life takes an unexpected turn when a distant relative dies and the will appoints her the caretaker of their baby girl, Elizabeth. The baby's sudden arrival causes Steven to leave, breaking off their relationship. Juggling power lunches and powdered formula, she is soon forced off the fast track by a conniving colleague and a bigoted boss. But she won't stay down for long. She'll prove to the world that a woman can have it all and on her own terms too!

Introverted Don Johnston receives an anonymous letter from an ex-lover informing him that he has a son who may be looking for him. A freelance sleuth neighbor motivates Don to embark on a cross-country search for his past flames seeking answers.

Patagonia, Argentina. A mechanic who dreams of a different life begins to think big after his adopted puppy Bombón wins first prize at a local dog show.

A woman inexplicably finds herself cut off from all human contact when an invisible, unyielding wall suddenly surrounds the countryside. Accompanied by her loyal dog Lynx, she becomes immersed in a world untouched by civilization and ruled by the laws of nature.

Calvin Wheeler is a scheming 13-year-old boy with everything going for him, except for an original issue of his precious comic book collection. When a prized show-dog chases him down while skateboarding one day, his owner inadvertently convinces him to adopt and train a dog of his own. However the only one available, is an uncouth stray Labrador/St. Bernard-mix named Tyko from a local animal shelter, who proves to be more than anybody can handle.

Forcibly separated from her twin brother when they are orphaned, a melancholic misfit learns how to find confidence within herself amid the clutter of misfortunes and everyday life.

On the eve of his wedding, a successful writer travels around the country to meet up with ex-lovers in an attempt to make amends for his wrongdoings.

Childhood pals Dog and Mirales live in a little village in the south of France and spend their days just hanging out. To kill time, Mirales has got into the habit of teasing Dog mercilessly. But this summer is different: Dog meets Elsa and romance blossoms.

Max the terrier must cope with some major life changes when his owner gets married and has a baby. When the family takes a trip to the countryside, nervous Max has numerous run-ins with canine-intolerant cows, hostile foxes and a scary turkey. Luckily for Max, he soon catches a break when he meets Rooster, a gruff farm dog who tries to cure the lovable pooch of his neuroses.

When reporter Jean Craddock interviews Bad Blake—an alcoholic, seen-better-days country music legend—they connect, and the hard-living crooner sees a possible saving grace in a life with Jean and her young son.

Set in the year 2024 in post-apocalyptic America, 18-year old Vic and his telepathic dog, Blood, are scavengers in the desolate wilderness ravaged by World War IV, where survivors must battle for food and shelter in the desert-like wasteland. Vic and Blood eke out a meager existence, foraging for food and fighting gangs of cutthroats.

A withdrawn young man, Leland Fitzgerald is imprisoned for the murder of a mentally disabled boy, who also happened to be the brother of his girlfriend, Becky. As the community struggles to deal with the killing, Pearl Madison, a teacher at the prison, decides to write about Leland's case. Meanwhile, others affected by the murder, including Becky and her sister, Julie, must contend with their own problems.

The idea is simple / A married woman and a single man meet / They love, they argue, fists fly / A dog strays between town and country / The seasons pass / The man and woman meet again / The dog finds itself between them / The other is in one, / the one is in the other / and they are three / The former husband shatters everything / A second film begins: / the same as the first, / and yet not / From the human race we pass to metaphor / This ends in barking / and a baby's cries / In the meantime, we will have seen people talking of the demise of the dollar, of truth in mathematics and of the death of a robin." - JLG

Middle-aged and divorced, Wilson finds himself lonely, smug, and obsessed with his past.

An Oscar-winning writer in a slump leaves Hollywood to teach screenwriting at a college on the East Coast, where he falls for a single mom taking classes there.

When a woman visits a Chinese doctor, she discovers her pain is due to pent-up rage, and the only cure is to fully express herself, whatever may come.

Agnes feels stuck. Unlike her best friend, Lydie, who’s moved to New York and is now expecting a baby, Agnes still lives in the New England house they once shared as graduate students, now working as a professor at her alma mater. A ‘bad thing’ happened to Agnes a few years ago and, since then, despite her best efforts, life hasn’t gotten back on track.

The tale of a workaholic dad-turned-dog who finds that being man's best friend shows him the most important job - being a great dad.

Widower Harry Keach is a construction worker who was raised to appreciate the importance of working for a living. He takes a dim view of his sensitive son Howard's lackadaisical lifestyle and has a strained relationship with his daughter Nina as he does not approve of her husband. When Harry is fired from his job, his life changes drastically as he is made to focus on the relationships around him.

A regular guy struggles with a repressive home and professional life, as well as making amends for the trouble his free-spirited brother and sister cause about town.

An actor on the skids is given one more chance to regain his stardom, as well as his self-respect, yet his alcoholism may prevent that from happening.

A 17 year old finds out that his girlfriend is dying, so he sets out to give her an entire life, in the last year she has left.

A busy attorney, worried that his anorexic daughter Olga, who is still grieving her recently deceased mother, might try to harm herself, sends her to see a psychiatrist who's dealing with her own loss in an unusual way.

Nothing is as it seems when a woman experiencing misgivings about her new boyfriend joins him on a road trip to meet his parents at their remote farm.

After having visions of a member of her support group who killed herself, a woman who also suffers with chronic pain seeks out the widower of the suicide.

A white Bull Terrier named Baxter is given to an elderly woman by her daughter. As time passes, the dog develops aggressive and murderous behavior in order to be adopted by another family.

Stranded in the remote countryside after wrecking their car, a couple seeking to start over discovers that there's no escape from the sins of their past.

Babe is a little pig who doesn't quite know his place in the world. With a bunch of odd friends, like Ferdinand the duck who thinks he is a rooster and Fly the dog he calls mum, Babe realises that he has the makings to become the greatest sheep pig of all time, and Farmer Hoggett knows it. With the help of the sheep dogs, Babe learns that a pig can be anything that he wants to be.

Sam is a young stand-up comedian and au pair struggling with PTSD, who is weighing whether or not to join the search for Brooke, a missing girl she used to nanny.

When eleven-year-old Mick is shipped off to his grandfather's cattle station in Western Australia, he befriends a scrappy, one-of-a-kind dog that will change his life forever.



