- Director: Ridley Scott
- Screenplay: Mark L. Smith
- Based on: ‘The Dog Stars‘ by Peter Heller
- Producer: Ridley Scott, Michael Pruss, Mark L. Smith, Cliff Roberts
- Cast: Jacob Elordi, Josh Brolin, Margaret Qualley, Guy Pearce
- Cinematography: Erik Messerschmidt
- Editing: Sam Restivo, Claire Simpson
- Score: Harry Gregson-Williams
- Genre: Science fiction action thriller
- Runtime: 118 minutes
Imagine if COVID-19 had been tenfold in its lethality. Then you’d have the world ‘The Dog Stars‘ exists in. Deserted cities overgrown with moss. Corpses rotting on the ground. On the bright side, no pollution – a starlit sky.
Enough time has passed for talk of a pandemic not to hit home for us viewers. But for pilot Hig (Jacob Elordi) and his cohabitant Bangley (Josh Brolin), the current situation is gloomy. Hig’s pregnant wife died of flu and Bangley’s social skills leave a lot to be desired. The latter has a knack for survival though. He knows the rules. Shoot or be shot. Nobody is here to make friends.
A pragmatic approach. However, it doesn’t apply to everyone Hig encounters. Leaving the safety of his and Bangley’s base to chase a faraway radio signal (a stupid decision), he befriends Cima (Margaret Qualley) and her gruff dad, known as “Pops” (Guy Pearce).
The pacing is sluggish, as if all the fight has been knocked out of it. The only compelling character is Bangley, and he’s ditched a third of the way into the runtime. So that leaves us with Elordi’s brooding and a torpid journey onwards. The action picks up a bit during a brief touchdown at a reconverted airport in Grand Junction, run by a former air stewardess (Allison Janney).
The pandemic has put ordinary life on pause. Perhaps even backwards. Hig flies supplies to a Mennonite community who look like they’re extras from ‘Little House on the Prairie‘. Janney’s air stewardess wears a 1960’s Pan Am uniform. I guess pushing the ‘play’ button and letting things move forward in time is too much to ask for not just the fictional world, but also the film itself.
My rating: 6 / 10
SilverScreen 