The Dog Stars – Film Review
by Fran Winston

Directed by: Ridley Scott
Starring: Jacob Elordi, Josh Brolin, Margaret Qualley, Guy Pearce
In cinemas August 28

I usually look forward to a Ridley Scott film. He is a dependable and rightly acclaimed filmmaker who consistently delivers engaging movies and thought-provoking storytelling. However, the thought of sitting through a film dealing with the aftermath of a devastating flu pandemic that has almost eradicated humanity didn’t exactly fill me with glee a mere four years after we were all released from the enforced house arrest of the Covid pandemic.

It begins as grimly as you would expect, with one man, Hig (Elordi), and his dog clearing a strip on an airfield so they can take off in a small plane to an abandoned town overrun with wildlife to collect supplies. Hig spends his days flying over the desolate wilderness, searching for supplies and looking for any signs of other survivors.

The pair live on the airstrip with another survivor, Bangley (Brolin), a hardened former Marine who spends much of his time in a lookout tower taking shots at feral survivors known as “reapers” who try to invade their safe haven.

Hig becomes increasingly keen to explore beyond the boundaries after picking up a radio signal suggesting there may be other signs of human life elsewhere. Leaving the relative safety of the airstrip, he sets off across the dangerous and unpredictable wasteland, where, inevitably, his plane crashes.

This leads to an encounter with Cima (Qualley), a young medic, and her father, “Pops” (Pearce), and their lives become intertwined as they fight to protect their property and get Hig’s plane back in the air.

Along the way, there is an extremely odd scene in an airport that feels as though it belongs in a different movie, while some stunning cinematography captures the desolate world from the air.

There are also nods to several other post-apocalyptic offerings, which should offer a sense of familiarity but instead add to the film’s disjointed feeling.

I got the impression Scott is trying to answer numerous questions about the meaning of humanity and family, and what it means to thrive rather than merely survive, but those ideas get lost in the sluggish pacing and cliché-riddled script.

Perhaps it has simply come too soon after the real-life global pandemic, but for a film that has so much going for it on paper, and despite some genuinely lovely moments, The Dog Stars ultimately fails to deliver on screen.