Slouching toward apocalypse in a little yellow plane
A nice review of this film is the one on Slash Film by Chris Evangelista. He's kind every step of the way, never snide. Critics have a tendency to turn snide about this film. It's rambling and odd, and Ridley Scott is 90 now and may be at the end of the road. He's made some good ones and some bad, but Alien, Blade Runner and Thelma and Louse are not the only Hollywood classics in his filmogrqphy. Evangelista covers this new one thoroughly, and kindly. He leaves you thinking that for all the oddity, Dog Stars "has its charms." Lets take it from there. You can hang with this movie.
But the Mark L. Smith adaptation of Peter Heller's novel (which Walter Chaw says he's quite fond of, the novel, that is) doesn't give you a handle to hold onto. Yes it's fairly conventional end of the world stuff, a world wiped out by flu. There are no epic scenes. What you may remember best will be the four main actors and a little yellow Cessna airplane. The Dog Stars tends to be rather meandering and low key. Hig (Jacob Elordi, the heart and center of the film) is a mechanic and an airman with a serviceable old Cessna plane who has a faithful dog called Jasper. The dog in the book is a blue heeler, an ultra faithful breed, but mainly a Belgian Malinois in the film. They live with Bangley, played by Josh Brolin, a grumpy old codger who trusts no one and shoots anyone on sight. That's apocallyptic, alright.
This is very much a hangout movie. We hang out with Hig, Jasper, and Bangley. Later, Hig must get away from Bangley's grim world and goes to another landing field in Colorado where he finds another grumpy codger, Pops, played by Guy Pearce. It is one of my main criticisms that Pearce looks and sounds too much like Josh Brolin. He could at least have been allowed to keep his Australian accent. Pops is Pop to a bright, cheery girl called Cima (Margaret Quailley). It has been insisted that Jacob and Margaret lack chemistry. It doesn't seem like that to me. There is chemistry enough and anyway, there's not much time for chemistry, nor is that much of a Ridley Scott thing, people think. It takes Hig time to persuade Pops to let him stay, and allow Hig and Margaret to hang out. A man who not only has weapons, as everybody does in this film, but a highly maneuverable small plane, has much to offer to anybody in an uneventful apocalypse.
There are violent incidents. While Hig goes on a run, Pops is attacked by fifty unfriendlies. None of the action moments are exciting or beautiful or even clear. A bunch of young men with big tattoos appear and critics claim there is racism here, but what are you going to do? You can't film unfriendlies in a flattering manner. Again, the action isn't clear enough to define what group, if any, these people belong to. The real incident to remember, as Evangelista notes, is the third act and it's a scene none of the publicity even touched on. Allison Janney as a psychotic flight attendant serving martinis is at the center of a very surreal and scary scene. It must end violently and by now, sadly, we know it won't be clear really what happens, but Janney has had her moment. This seems like one point where Ridley Scott could not help capturing some of the peculiarity of Peter Heller's novel.
It all ends happily, with Mennonites, though Bangley, who is still around, insists on calling them "Mormons." Mennonites save the day. If you don't find that satisfying, join the group. I could feel Jacob Elordi's enthusiasm to the end. He has made no secret of the fact that he thinks Ridley Scott is one of the great ones and he was delighted to be in one of his movies. He is having a good time and it's contagious. It's also clear - one thing that definitely is - that while this isn't Colorado but Italy, these are real places and real people and a real little plane that's being flown around. This film makes up in texture what it lacks in energy or relatable action.
David Rooney in The Hollywood Reporter sums up what this film is like: "Muted but never dull," he says, The Dog Stars seems unlikely to land near the top of anyone’s Ridley Scott rankings." But there's a compensation, because "it’s an appealingly mellow watch, even if that might seem antithetical to a post-apocalyptic drama positioned squarely in the shadow of death." For the shadow of death, you must go elsewhere.
The Dog Stars,118 mins. entered US theaters Aug. 28, 2026. Metacritic rating: 49%. But i's not the stinker that implies.