The Dog Stars (2026)
Directed by: Ridley Scott
Premise: Based on the novel by Peter Heller. In a post-apocalyptic future, a former mechanic (Jacob Eloridi) searches for other survivors. He encounters a father and daughter (Guy Pearce and Margaret Qualley) and gradually earns their trust while a murderous gang roams the countryside.
What Works: The Dog Stars is a post-apocalyptic drama and the performances are the strongest aspect of this film. Jacob Elordi stars as a man who lost his wife and child in a global pandemic and now lives with a survivalist played by Josh Brolin. Elordi’s character travels into the ruins of the city to visit his former house and relive memories of his family. Elordi conveys sadness without being maudlin. It’s a quiet, masculine portrait of grief. Having lost what was most important to him, Elordi’s character searches for a new animating purpose to his life and eventually finds it in relationships to other people, namely a father and daughter played by Guy Pearce and Margaret Qualley. The middle of The Dog Stars is about the three of them learning to trust each other and eventually working together. This is easily the best part of the movie. During this segment, the film has a feel of emotional growth and narrative movement.
What Doesn’t: Unfortunately, the rest of The Dog Stars does not live up to its performances or the potential of the middle segment. The movie has the curious flaw of simultaneously feeling too long and too short. The pacing frequently drags. Not enough happens, certainly very little of consequence, and what does happen is often cliché. As a post-apocalyptic drama, we’ve seen all this before and done better in other movies. The story is structured in four acts but only the second segment that brings together Elordi, Pearce, and Qualley’s characters actually works. The other segments feel rushed through especially a section in which the trio lands at an airport that appears civilized but is quickly revealed to be a nightmare. Each part of this story feels disconnected from the others. The characters and their relationships don’t grow in meaningful ways and Brolin and Pearce’s characters are redundant. When Brolin returns to the narrative, it’s clear that the filmmakers don’t know what to do with Pearce and he just hovers in the background with nothing to do. As a story of overcoming grief and finding something worth living for, The Dogs Stars does not add up to much. It’s also an ugly looking film. The movie appears shot through a grey filter that makes everything look muddy.
Bottom Line: The Dog Stars aspires to the tone of 28 Days Later and The Road but it falls far short. The movie is ugly and boring and full of post-apocalyptic clichés.
Episode: #1115 (September 6, 2026)