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Max

Max

Adventure · Drama · Family · 2015

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.

Movie details

Max

“Best Friend. Hero. Marine.”

2015 Adventure · Drama · Family 1h 51m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

7.1 / 10

Community rating

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.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Max?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

Saving Flora

Saving Flora

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Lost on a Mountain in Maine

Lost on a Mountain in Maine

Adventure · 2024

When twelve-year-old Donn Fendler gets tired of waiting for his father and brothers to join him on the summit of Maine's highest peak, he decides to find his own way back to camp. But Donn doesn't count on a fast-moving fog that obscures the path. He doesn't count on falling down an embankment that hides him from sight. And he doesn't count on taking a turn that leaves him alone to wander aimlessly for nearly two weeks in the empty mountain wilderness.

Duma

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The Call of the Wild: Dog of the Yukon

The Call of the Wild: Dog of the Yukon

Adventure · 1997

Jack London's classic story from 1903 about Buck, a dog kidnapped from his home in California and taken to the Yukon where he is mistreated until a prospector discovers him and relates to his situation. Although the two are bonded, Buck yearns to run free with the wild dogs in the wilderness.

Alabama Moon

Alabama Moon

Adventure · 2009

After the unexpected death of his survivalist father, an eleven year old boy raised in the Alabama wilderness must learn how to make a home in the modern world.

EO

EO

Drama · 2022

The world is a mysterious place when seen through the eyes of an animal. EO, a grey donkey with melancholic eyes, meets good and bad people on his life’s path, experiences joy and pain, endures the wheel of fortune randomly turn his luck into disaster and his despair into unexpected bliss. But not even for a moment does he lose his innocence.

Into the Wild

Into the Wild

Adventure · 2007

After graduating from Emory University in 1992, top student and athlete Christopher McCandless abandons his possessions, gives his entire $24,000 savings account to charity, and hitchhikes to Alaska to live in the wilderness.

Lean on Pete

Lean on Pete

Drama · 2018

Charley Thompson, a teenager living with his single father, gets a summer job working for horse trainer Del Montgomery. Bonding with an aging racehorse named Lean on Pete, Charley is horrified to learn he is bound for slaughter, and so he steals the horse, and the duo embark on an odyssey across the new American frontier.

I Am David

I Am David

Drama · 2003

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The Call of the Wild

The Call of the Wild

Adventure · 1972

John Thornton, is a fearless man who's after more than gold; he wants to do what's right. Thornton works for the U.S. mail and is the only person daring and smart enough to figure out how to travel the deadly 600 miles from Skagway to Dawson, Alaska in the icy winter. His incredibly dog Buck is by his side and part of how he survives.

Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Boaz Yakin

Written by

Sheldon Lettich · Boaz Yakin

Thomas Haden Church

Thomas Haden Church

Ray

Josh Wiggins

Josh Wiggins

Justin

Lauren Graham

Lauren Graham

Pamela

Robbie Amell

Robbie Amell

Kyle Wincott

Mia Xitlali

Mia Xitlali

Carmen

D

Dejon LaQuake

Chuy

Luke Kleintank

Luke Kleintank

Tyler Harne

Court is in session

Put Max on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Sentimental Softie

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Cool Ironist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.