A young woman flees her physically abusive mate, taking the first flight out of Buffalo to Los Angeles, where she lands with a thud and luckily is befriended by a one-of-a-kind handler of pooches that belong to rich folk living in the hills. A promising debut by writer-director Jacques Thelemaque, "The Dogwalker" is one of those rare outsider-comes-to-L.A. films that captures the city's smoggy human atmosphere of promise and abandon -- and isolation -- without being preachy. Not to be confused with a 1999 indie comedy of the same name directed by Paul Duran, "Dogwalker" benefits greatly from the lead performances by Diane Galdry and Pamela Gordon ("Chuck & Buck").

Subscribe to the Hollywood Reporter and see the entertainment industry from its best angle: the inside looking out. Complete access to real-time news and exclusive analysis that goes behind the scenes from film to television, home video to digital media.

   Subscribe now.