We’ve had so much post-apocalyptic “entertainment" that it now qualifies as a pop-cultural obsession, if not an addiction. Still, dystopian overload didn’t stop director Ridley Scott from taking us to a time when life as we know it once again has come to an end.
That said, The Dog Stars, which is based on a 2012 novel by Peter Heller and leans heavily on stars Jacob Elordi, Josh Brolin, Margaret Qualley, and Guy Pearce, includes what might be the year’s wackiest sequence.
I won’t make you wait for it.
The sequence to which I’m referring features a commanding Allison Janey as leader of a post-apocalyptic cult headquartered in an airport in Grand Junction, Co.
Janey's Darlene dresses like an airline stewardess (don’t call her a flight attendant) and flashes a smile that could chill a martini. She and her cohorts have created a throwback world that evokes the '50s and '60s and stands in absurd contrast to the movie's rugged frontier terrain.
Perhaps as a bow to movie lore, Scott also unleashes a frenzied raid that resembles something from a bygone western. Raging barbarians attack an outpost where Elodri’s Hig has taken refuge with a grizzled father (Pearce) and his daughter, Cima (Qualley in what might be the movie's best performance).
A word about the movie's western settings: Shortly after the story begins, Hig flies his dilapidated Cessna to Denver. He plans to stock up on supplies before returning to the remote settlement he shares with Bailey, a highly focused former marine played by Brolin.
The Denver scenes include a trip to City Hall and to something called The Denver Athletic Center. Neither of these facilities resembles anything you’ll find in Denver, and Scott's sweeping aerial views of mountain landscapes don't look much like the Rockies either. The movie, I've read, was shot in Italy.
Look, I know movies require generous suspensions of disbelief, but for those of us who call Colorado home, some of the movie’s geographic references waver between disorienting and amusing.
But back to the review….
It’s hardly surprising that Scott, an acknowledged master, deftly handles action sequences that prove exciting, even embellishing the Grand Junction episode with a pyromaniacal scorching that looks as though it might have been lifted from a horror film.
Too often, though, the movie sags, and the relationship between Hig and Bangley, who lives by a rudimentary code emphasizing raw survival, relies on dialogue that could have used a touch of finesse.
The two share living arrangements at an abandoned airfield near Erie, Co. Hig still has some human impulses. All-business Bangley climbs a wooden tower to pick off unwanted visitors with a high-powered rifle.
Elordi opts for quiet reserve with hints of grief and remorse. Hig lost his wife to the virus that caused this massive global retrogression. At one point, Hig and Cima become nostalgic about pleasures they've almost forgotten: She misses driving while listening to music on the radio; he wouldn't mind if the traffic jams he once hated broke up the movie's empty landscapes.
Perhaps as an alternative to the hard-boiled survivalist ethos of most of the characters, the movie adds a brood of farmers and kids led by a character played by an underutilized Benedict Wong. Bangley refers to them as Mormons but seems to be using the term sarcastically for a group of decent folks that dress like Mennonites.
In the early part of the movie, Hig’s dog Jasper serves as his main companion. The dog follows Hig everywhere, even flying in the passenger seat of his Cessna. Much is made of Jasper’s spirit and in a tender moment, Hig — who always sleeps outside —shares a gooey-eyed moment of stargazing with the dog he calls his partner.
I hope it’s clear by now that the wildly uneven Dog Stars has its moments. I laughed at some of it, although I'm not sure that's the response Scott meant to elicit.
For the record: Dog Stars doesn’t rival Scott’s best work (Alien, Blade Runner, Thelma & Louise, Gladiator, or, for some, The Martian).
Oddly, the parts that don’t really mesh with the movie's pervasive dystopian gloom save Dog Stars from wallowing in a mood of total defeat. They may not be enough to make the movie a success, but they at least jar it awake.
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