R | 2h 2m | Drama | 2025
Canadian writer-director-actor Steven Grayhm—who strongly resembles Matt Damon—dedicated 14 years of his life to researching, writing, directing, producing, and starring in “Sheepdog.” It’s a film about a U.S. Army combat veteran’s struggle with severe PTSD.
While not a former soldier himself, Grayhm conducted interviews with thousands of veterans and first responders. He also founded Team House Studios in 2020, a production company dedicated to hiring and empowering military veterans. The final title card before the credit roll reads:
“17 Veterans die by suicide every day in the United States. Over 67,000 Veterans experience homelessness on any given night. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please text or call The Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988.”
This particular triple-threat bid to join the ranks of Hollywood power players goes above and beyond manufacturing a calling card. It’s a bona fide labor of love and an admirable do-good mission.
‘Sheepdog’
Calvin Cole (Grayhm) is an Iraq War vet suffering from addiction and PTSD that he self-medicates with pills and booze. He just lost his job when the paper mill closed. Divorced from wife Alice (Lilli Cooper), he’s still reeling from an incident that killed his youngest daughter. As if those weren’t enough problems, when Calvin assaults a stranger in a supermarket (a high school hockey teammate he no longer recognizes), he’s court-ordered to attend mandatory rehab.
During his therapy, his ex-Marine, Vietnam vet father-in-law, Whitney (Vondie Curtis-Hall from medical drama “Chicago Hope”), returns home after 30 years in Leavenworth military prison.
After the movie’s emotional highlight—a prolonged monologue by Whitney, describing his shameful homecoming (being spit on by the American public) and the raw deal that resulted in him wrongfully losing half his life to prison—Whitney and Calvin bond only as former soldiers can. They end up supporting each other through their respective hardships and tribulations.
Calvin and his therapist, Elecia (Virginia Madsen, best known for 2004’s “Sideways”), battle through his rejection of treatment, and they attempt to unravel the Gordian Knot of his decade’s worth of trauma.
Not Just a Matt Damon Look-Alike
This is purely conjecture, but in addition to this project being a good deed, one suspects there was also a calculated career-advancing game plan behind “Sheepdog.” And why shouldn’t there be?It’s always a showbiz advantage to look like a particular movie star (“Brad Pitt is the next Robert Redford!”) and Grayhm attempts to cash in on his Matt Damon-clone auspiciousness by having one of the characters refer to Calvin as a “Target-brand Matt Damon.” He also attempts to hike the same trails that both Matt Damon and the Affleck brothers took earlier in their careers.
“Sheepdog” therefore feels like a mash-up of those three films that falls emotionally flat due to its attempting to ride the coattails of three of the most emotionally brutal films ever.
Not Heavy Enough
The problem with trying to wear the simultaneous three hats of the Hollywood triple threat is that it’s generally too much to juggle. “Sheepdog” fails to pack the emotional punch needed for a cataclysmic drama of this magnitude. The screenplay is overstuffed with tragedy and remorse, demanding a Shakespearean, sledge-hammer level of tragedy on-screen, especially with this fine cast of heavy-hitting actors.Had Grayhm focused only on screenwriting and left the directing up to Scott Cooper (“Out of the Furnace”) or Gus Van Sant (“Good Will Hunting”), he might have seriously had something. Then, he would have been able to focus more on things like the acting-craft technique of “making things specific.”
Grayhm has to negotiate numerous military-jargon-laden monologues. It’s clear that he wasn’t able to spend enough time meticulously creating vivid pictures in his mind of each military term, so that they fire up real “memories” and therefore emotions when spoken. Emotions can’t tell the difference between the mental image of an actual memory and that of an acting-craft manufactured image, but the camera unerringly picks up on this kind of acting minutia.
But then, that’s the whole point of the three-hat, DIY approach. Grayhm isn’t yet a player and therefore is unable to financially afford the luxuries that come with that level of power. Not everyone can be Mel Gibson: writing, directing, starring in “Braveheart,” and slam dunking the whole triple-threat process.
“Sheepdog” is a valiant attempt that aims for lofty heights but comes up somewhat short. An “A” for effort for sure. When Steven Grayhm no longer has to be a jack of all trades, he’ll definitely be a master of one. Which one remains to be seen. The dogged persistence of putting in 14 years, in the trenches, on this project proves that Steven Grayhm has got what it takes to rise to the top in the treacherous trade of show business.
Where “Sheepdog” completely succeeds is in addressing veteran support. Veterans did a job that most are unwilling to do and find themselves quickly judged by those who haven’t served. Veterans were hailed as heroes in World War II, but rejected by the American public in the Korean and Vietnam wars. Even now, after prolonged engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan, veterans still fail to get the support they need and deserve. Kudos to Grayhm for shining a spotlight on this shameful aspect of American culture.
