Written by Andreas Babiolakis

Warning: This review is for Dog 51, which is a film presented at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival. There may be slight spoilers present. Reader discretion is advised.

Image courtesy of the Toronto International film Festival.

The future is now. AI is planted in every website and application. Drones pollute the skies. All of your information is obtainable and exploitable. Cédric Jimenez’s Dog 51 — also known as Chien 51 — places us in a dystopian state in France to fend for ourselves. Districts are divided so the wealthiest citizens live in Zone 1, and the poorer folk occupy the following regions (a clear representation of the divided class system). There are hints of a well constructed world here but too much is rooted in the present to make Dog 51 stand out as anything futuristic. Then again, you will find that the biggest flaws of the film are how it dares to dream but it never gets beyond the biggest cliches of political sci-fi flicks. If we are determined to unveil the dangers and truths of technology, why are we taken the beaten paths of millions before us and learning nothing new? Isn’t a major theme of science fiction to journey where we’ve never ventured before?

Zam (Gilles Lellouche) is an insomniac investigator who is pitted together with the secretive-yet-blunt Salia (Adèle Exarchopoulos) to try and figure out why the creator of the AI system, ALMA (which governs all of France), has been assassinated. Zam and Salia do not really care to work with one another at first, and their separate motivations also get in the way of one another. However, like any other thinly-written film with a man who is an entire generation older than his female counterpart, they are simply destined to fall in love (even if they barely have any chemistry or reason to want to be with one another). A shoehorned-in karaoke session with 4 Non Blondes’ “What’s Up” solidifies this union. As Zam and Salia get further in their investigation, they unearth many awful discoveries that paint a bigger picture: surveillance sucks. These are things we already know, I’m afraid this is old news, and using these revelations as stepping stones in a film like Dog 51 feels a little lazy.

The second act is the saviour of the film in any capacity, mainly when Salia winds up being penalized for her deep research and finds herself being hunted. You get the sense of how dangerous this society is when a drone with sharp blades and deadly accuracy is ever-so-quietly stalking your every move; Salia’s mouse to the drone’s cat aims to be five moves ahead in this chase. It is the film’s only source of authentic tension and anticipation, and I felt like things were heading in the right direction once we reached such an intense sequence (as well as the moments that surround it). It was then that I was dialing in a bit more to the film and noticing the interesting blend of contemporary France, a hostile use of technology in the future, and otherworldly fashion. This building of the film’s culture was allowing me to feel like I was maybe not tuned in enough. Perhaps I was wrong to be on autopilot with this film.

It is the atrocious ending that corrected me and proved that I was right this whole time. From the most obvious twist of the whole film (I don’t even need to spell it out for you) to the final sequence that ends with an absolute thud (and maybe the most on-the-nose use of Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here,” which is saying a lot), this is a film that was hastily wrapped up because — deep down — I believe there wasn’t much to say. This wasn’t a fully realized world with moving, intrinsic parts, not was it a proper statement on artificial intelligence that didn’t copy all of the surface level points of works from many years ago. If anything, all I could think of this whole film is how Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty predates Dog 51 by over twenty years and it not only predicted the military’s usage of AI but so many other offshoot factors (identity concerns, digital stalking, AI turning on humans). Dog 51 felt a little bit like one of these games but only if played by someone who vowed to run through them as quickly as possible, shoot everything without utilizing stealth (except for one or two scenes), and skip every dialogue portion to get back to the action. How does one understand the severity of AI if the argument given is as substantial as a single online social media comment in the form of a nearly two-hour film?

I will end this review by imploring Hideo Kojima — on the note of Metal Gear Solid — to please hire Adèle Exarchopoulos for his next video game. This is someone who deserves better projects and would be brilliant in one of Kojima’s visions, and at least Dog 51 is exhibit A as to why. That’s pretty much it.

Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Toronto Metropolitan University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.