The Dog Starts (Photo – Fabio Lovino, 20th Century Studios)
Pastoral and post-apocalyptic, the new film from Ridley Scott, The Dog Stars, bears a distinct resemblance to The Odyssey, but to me was a much easier film to enjoy.
The Dog Stars
Directed by Ridley Scott – 2026
Reviewed by Garrett Rowlan
The two have the same premise: the hero’s journey and return. The Dog Stars, however, is not burdened by a by-the-numbers recitation of Homer’s plot points or a long running time. It’s not a perfect film, but it packs in more existential uncertainty, which is to say we viewers don’t know the outcome or how we’ll get there.
At its beginning, the protagonist, Hig, played by Jacob Elordi, leaves the relative safety of his isolated redoubt and periodically pilots a plane from a country commune into a rusted, rotting, corpse-strewn Denver for leftover supplies, which he then shares with the commune and with Bangley, played by Josh Brolin, an ex-Marine happy to be a survivalist in a world ravaged by disease and mayhem. He shoots anyone who wanders past the electronically monitored perimeter.
Airborne, Hig keeps hearing a radio voice calling from Grand Junction. He wants to see what’s there. Bangley protests and calls their living situation, without irony, “the American dream.”
The flight commences, and the aerial vistas of the plane sweeping through valleys and over rivers are spectacular—that is, until the engine dies and the plane crashes. Conveniently, however, Hig ditches near another survivalist cell, this one occupied by a father-and-daughter duo played by Guy Pearce and Margaret Qualley. “So what did you do before the world ended?” is a surefire conversation starter.
The three eventually form a union, and the daughter and Hig begin a romance. Hig still wants to go to Grand Junction, and before long, a raid by a roaming group of crazies on horseback sends the trio running to the single-wing plane. They fly to Grand Junction and an encounter that adds humor and surrealism to the movie. It’s a perfect change-up in the film’s atmosphere.
As I said before, it’s not a perfect film. I found it difficult to believe that, ten years after the outbreak of destruction, so many supplies remained untapped. And if The Odyssey is burdened by its allegiance to Homer’s story, The Dog Stars at times seems to lean into the cliché of crazed skinheads, leftovers for a hundred zombie movies. I also found the product placement a little annoying. While perhaps a necessary evil in today’s film financing, at least the production kept the covert ads to the beginning of the film. Still, I couldn’t help but think that the film was saying we may not survive, but Coca-Cola, Sprite, and even Phillips 66 will.
The acting is good, and I especially liked that Margaret Qualley had recovered from last year’s bad private-detective film, Honey Don’t. Special note must be made of Allison Janney, who plays a stewardess turned local warlord. What she does with a bit part really gives the film a kick in the pants.
> Playing at Landmark Theatres Pasadena, Regal Paseo, Regal Edwards Alhambra Renaissance, AMC Atlantic Times Square 14, AMC Santa Anita 16, Regal UA La Canada, and LOOK Dine-In Cinemas.
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