Director: Ridley Scott
Writers: Mark L. Smith, Peter Heller
Stars: Jacob Elordi, Margaret Qualley, Josh Brolin
Synopsis: In a post-apocalyptic world, a virus wipes out humanity. Survivors face roaming scavengers called Reapers. Protagonist Hig, a pilot, survived the flu but lost his wife.
Ridley Scott has been making films for almost 50 years now. He has been a master of his craft from the jump, has made brilliant films such as Alien and Blade Runner, and it seems that he shows no intent on slowing down. At this point, it’s unclear whether he’s chasing something with his high output of films or if he is really enamored with the material he is presented with. Now we have his fifth feature film of the 2020s – The Dog Stars. And should you walk away thinking “does the quantity of Scott’s output impact the quality of his filmmaking?” A clock can be right twice a day (see The Martian or Alien: Covenant), but unfortunately, The Dog Stars is not an instance that fits.
The Dog Stars is a post-apocalyptic film following the life of a former mechanic, Hig (Jacob Elordi), after a flu pandemic decimates humanity. Hig resides with Bangley (Josh Brolin), and after Hig receives a radio signal from “Grand Junction” he seeks to find his way there in the hopes of finding more survivors or anything else. The Dog Stars is one of the few post-apocalyptic films that feels much warmer and inviting, rather than cold and desolating. It’s because of this when moments of insanity or savagery occur that it feels less interested in the violence on screen, rather to just get back to the movie stars looking clean and well dressed. Disappointing, as the premise and the events are relatively interesting, but the world does not lend itself to the characters. Rather, the words on the page display the events instead of giving life to anything.
What makes The Dog Stars frustrating is that the more intimate moments or moments where you develop a connection with a character or moment is undercut by what comes next. The pace is brisk, but at the cost of the weight of certain moments. A revelation about Hig and his dead wife has no impact because we’re never given any time to live in their relationship. Everything relies on the suspension of belief and the extension of the viewers personal lived experiences. Which is unfortunate, because in a film revolving around the aftermath of tragedy there is little actual tragedy to pull from – except one thing that I won’t give away but was such low hanging fruit it was practically laying in your hands before the film even started.
Now there are some interesting filmmaking moments in the film. Design-wise, the world is well made, appropriately decayed and overgrown as if ripped from The Last of Us. There’s an action sequence with Bangley involving a night vision scope that stood out in the otherwise bored visuals. Otherwise, The Dog Stars is a hodgepodge of elements from much better films (and a few video games). You can recall moments from The Shining, the aforementioned The Last of Us, Avatar, Silent Hill 2, and Mad Max. There would be no reason to indulge in The Dog Stars if you can have the pieces that raise it up.
It feels like The Dog Stars should end multiple times, the product placement is insane (Coke products and Bulleit Bourbon galore), and no one seems particularly interested in the material in the film. But The Dog Stars isn’t a complete disaster. The all-star cast are there! It is written well enough! The scope is decent enough! And it certainly doesn’t look like hell (just boring)! Will you remember this? Barely. But you won’t be upset by anything in The Dog Stars. In New York City, a movie ticket is a lot more expensive than most cities – with that said I’d only recommend it if you’re watching in a dollar theater or it gets added to whatever streaming platform it will unceremoniously land on in a month.
There’s little to give much praise for this film, but the assembly of The Dog Stars is right above the level of ‘whatever’. The burning obnoxious question of ‘should Ridley Scott retire’ is equally tired as it is offensive (plenty of younger filmmakers that would make much better insurance sales agents than filmmakers). Which is to say, I don’t hate The Dog Stars, I don’t love The Dog Stars, and no, this isn’t a Goldilocks ‘just right’ situation either. The Dog Stars is bored on a lot of fronts but straddles right above being boring enough to not make this an outright disaster. Go watch it, I guess?
