Ridley Scott's new film The Dog Stars has premiered to a collective sigh of relief from fans of the director, coming after the disappointments of House of Gucci, Napoleon and Gladiator II. The film is described as "not half bad," though it's also "not half brilliant either."
A Folksy Post-Apocalyptic World
Based on Peter Heller's 2012 novel, the film is a folksy, rambling trundle through a backwoods post-apocalypse. It's 10 years after a virus wiped out most of the planet, and Jacob Elordi's Hig, a softly grieving widower, is hunkered down at an old mountain airfield outside Denver with Josh Brolin's Bangley, a man who enjoys mowing down intruders and burning their corpses.
Between short jolts of violence, there are flickers of homely humour, such as Hig and Bangley playing cards with mountains of dollar bills, money being redundant after the collapse of the world order. Hig makes regular light aircraft recon trips with his Belgian Malinois Jasper, sometimes stopping at a Mennonite community led by Benedict Wong's Aaron.
A Crash Landing and a Thin Adventure
On one supply flight, circumstances force Hig to crash land into the world of Pops (Guy Pearce) and his daughter Cima (Margaret Qualley). The film features a particularly unsubtle moment involving Qualley bending over, and the trio eventually head off on a thinly fleshed-out adventure that's paced slowly and unevenly.
The deeper human stories, such as the odd couple friendship between Bangley's brutal survivalist and Hig's peace-seeker, are only skimmed across. What lifts the film are wildly weird scenes where frenetic homicidalists burst into the characters' lives, including Allison Janney's toe-curling air hostess with an excessively flaming martini.
A Strange Flight of Fancy
The ending has provoked audible groans of disbelieving laughter from audiences. While not quite a return to form, for Scott, now 88, this strange flight of apocalyptic fancy proves there's plenty of bite in the old dog yet. The Dog Stars is in cinemas from August 26.
