THE DOG STARS Review: Does No Wrong…Pointlessly

Introduction

Ridley Scott’s latest film, The Dog Stars, is an exceedingly strange film. Despite an intriguing premise and being based on a well-received book, the film never gets to any point of narrative flow or meaning outside of some high-water visuals and fine performances. Sometimes a film will attempt to find itself during production.

The filmmakers will begin the story and naturally come to the point they are trying to make as they are following (or not following) the script. Scott is notorious for this approach, but he seemingly forgot to make a point along the way. As a result, the film just meanders its way through events without an end in sight until the end is stumbled upon without any feeling of catharsis or actual resolution.

Scott is immensely capable of delivering action set pieces as well as character-driven, dialogue-heavy films. The Dog Stars lives in this muddled middle where the action isn’t that well-staged and the dialogue is mostly clunky and contrived. While the character motivations are mostly clear, the muddy timeline and wild tonal swings don’t make a ton of sense. The film makes a few attempts at trying something different, but then eventually defaults back to well-worn post-apocalyptic tropes.

Jacob Elordi stars as Hig, a former mechanic living with his dog Jasper as well as former Marine Bangley (Josh Brolin) outside Denver. Years after a pandemic devastated humanity, Hig and Bangley live on an old airport and attempt to survive using a Cessna for supply runs and Bangley’s sharpshooting to protect them from outsiders. Hig wishes to seek out Grand Junction for other signs of life, while Bangley encourages him to stay at the airport and continue their survival.

Deciding to seek out Grand Junction, Hig heads that way, but plane trouble forces him down in an open field. He stumbles upon former Navy SEAL Pops (Guy Pearce) and his daughter Cima (Margaret Qualley) surviving on a humble farm. While making repairs on the plane, Hig grows closer to Cima. Meanwhile, outside threats begin to close in on Bangley back at the airport as similar threats simultaneously approach Hig, Cima, and Pops.

Themes/Criticsms

While the film’s post-apocalyptic setting is immediately interesting, the film tries to go out of its way to explain too little while explaining just enough to have more questions to ask. Yes, the global pandemic is explained as a flu, but it doesn’t make sense why some survived and others didn’t. The characters warn of roving bands of marauders, but those groups have no understanding or context. They are just people with weird tattoos who act like a combination of Mad Max war boys and cliched 18th century Native Americans.

The threats are nameless, faceless, and emotionless. There is no reason to fear these people, but there is also no reason to assume everyone means harm, though everyone seems to. The world has enough problems, but these roving bands just add new layers to otherwise thin circumstances. The filmmakers attempt to balance Hig’s more sympathetic approach to humanity with Bangley’s cynicism, but it also doesn’t have the ability to transcend that into greater themes. It’s just a matter of fact, not anything that has any meaning.

Cast/Direction

The cast doesn’t get any backup from the film, despite some of them doing their best. Elordi doesn’t get much to do outside of brooding and occasionally running around and digging up trees. We are supposed to be actively rooting for this guy, but he is also wildly suicidal. Brolin is the most captivating because of his persona and his gruff exterior. As long as the film pays attention to Hig, I was consistently much more interested in Bangley. The dog actor playing Jasper is clearly the star of the film.

On the flip side, I don’t know why you would cast an actor like Guy Pearce if you stop him from doing anything other than grunting and shooting a gun occasionally. He’s too reserved to make any sort of an impact across the film. Qualley puts in some nice work, giving many more layers to her character than what was on the page. She is a consistently likeable figure as well. Benedict Wong gets a few scenes as a leader of a Mennonite community, but he’s barely on screen.

Scott doesn’t infuse much of his own style, though he has a clean visual eye, especially during the numerous scenes of Hig flying. The aforementioned action scenes show nothing resembling Scott’s previous action achievements, though he does unnecessarily sever a head for good measure. The director has never shied away from some gratuitous violence.

Conclusion

The Dog Stars just comes and goes. There isn’t anything particularly interesting happening, and it doesn’t have anything much to say. The film ends up being a slightly watchable but pointless endeavor.  

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