In its first half hour, “The Dog Stars” – true to its name – spends a good bit of time showing us Jacob Elordi spending time with a dog.
After a deadly pandemic ravages the world, Hig (Elordi) and his trusted dog Jasper are some of the few remaining survivors left. In the years since the plague, Hig – a former mechanic with a penchant for flying planes – has built a pretty nice life for Jasper and himself, all things considered. They go on supply runs together, keeping the plane yard where Hig lives with a grumpy ex-marine named Bangley (Josh Brolin) stocked. Jasper is never far from Hig’s feet, quickly obeying every command of come, or sit, or stay. He sleeps with Hig. He goes fishing with Hig. When Hig brings a nearby mennonite village some extra supplies, Jasper tags along, happy to get his daily ration of cuddles from all the kids.
For the first act of the film, this dog takes up a lot of screen time – which, unfortunately (at least for fans of DoesTheDogDie.com), is a pretty clear indicator that Jasper is not long for this world. But beyond that, the fact that “The Dog Stars” – a post-apocalyptic drama directed by Ridley Scott and based on the novel of the same name – is willing to settle into the type of languid pace we don’t normally see in Scott’s movies is somewhat surprising.
With a screenplay by Mark L. Smith, there’s an old school sensibility to “The Dog Stars” that’s gently appealing (a little surprising, given how little press there’s been for the film). It’s meditative and star-driven, but taking a traditional approach that positions Elordi far closer to stars like Robert Redford or Harrison Ford than any of his contemporaries. Strangely enough, the film’s action sequences feel the most out of place, and its thematic exploration is perhaps too broad to make any sort of salient point about America today (and it does seem to be trying to do so). But “The Dog Stars” has strong performances, and a fine screenplay and sturdy direction that gives those performances room to breathe.
After Jasper dies, Hig doesn’t have much left to live for (in classic, sad-man protagonist fashion, his wife and unborn child died during the outbreak). But before he finally rams his plane into the side of a mountain (literally), he decides to investigate a strange radio signal he keeps hearing somewhere in the vicinity of Grand Junction. On the way, he crash lands near a small ranch run by Cima (Margaret Qualley), a former doctor, and her father, Pops (Guy Pearce).
In trying to explore themes of isolationism and the virtues or lack thereof of a return to traditional values, “The Dog Stars” opens itself up for comparison to Danny Boyle’s “28 Years Later.” But “The Dog Stars” isn’t quite as specific or nuanced as that film, and therefore its point of view can get a little muddled. And if “28 Years Later” operates from a post-Brexit point of view, “The Dog Stars” is distinctly American.
Dreams – specifically, The American Dream – are frequently mentioned throughout “The Dog Stars,” and different characters have different ideas about what that means. When Hig tells Cima about his life as a mechanic, a job that allowed him to pay the bills and still enjoy time with his family, she smiles softly at him and says: “That’s the dream.” For Bangley – paranoid, distrustful, and quick with a sniper – the American Dream amounts to “a perimeter you can defend.” In Grand Junction, another dream awaits – a “utopian” society where everyone is plagued by Mar-a-Lago face in a not-so-subtle nod to our current president and his ilk.
Considering that by film’s end, the society where the last of our survivors end up is a multicultural one that has no qualms about inviting in strangers, “The Dog Stars” is not subtle about which of these dreams it believes has merit. But it often paints with broad strokes that muddy the waters. Smith’s script focuses on the dangers of groups that thrive on homogeny, with Grand Junction standing in as a twisted distortion of America (although, maybe one not all that different from reality) led by Darlene (Allison Janney), who insists on dressing up as a Pan-Am stewardess and has a distaste for laborers who ask for asylum in her little paradise.
The Grand Junction section of the film is a bit of a hard stretch tonally, but at least serves a clear thematic purpose. But the other homogenous groups are ill-conceived. There’s a marauding group of people dressed like Native Americans that feels particularly egregious, and another gang-like group characterized by shaved heads and tattoos that are from “Texas or Mexico” – and that’s all we know. The sequence with the Native American group does raise questions about whether anyone in the group is actually indigenous or not, which in turn raises interesting questions about how cultural appropriation manifests in this post-apocalyptic world. But “The Dog Stars” is not interested in those groups enough to lend credence to those questions.
It’s funny to say that the best parts of a Ridley Scott movie are not the action scenes, but it’s true in this case. Elordi holds the center of the frame with the gravitational pull of melancholy, taking an archetypal part and elevating it into something more grounded. That’s pretty par for the course for most of the performances, but even if the characterization is a little simple in theory, the script allows for quieter moments where actors can dig a little deeper. The second act, which focuses on the budding romance between Hig and Cima (Qualley, free from her typical affectation, is utterly charming) is so languid and lush, it almost feels like Peter Weir’s “Witness” – happy to live in the space between their furtive glances. Scott, surprisingly, seems happy to live there too, almost rushing through the rote moments of action to get back to the good stuff.
