Is Jacob Elordi And Margaret Qualley’s New Thriller, The Dog Stars, Worth Seeing?

Two of Hollywood’s biggest stars, Jacob Elordi and Margaret Qualley, have teamed up with veteran director Ridley Scott to make The Dog Stars, a post-apocalyptic thriller that has a surprisingly more hopeful vibe than you might think. It also stars Josh Brolin and Guy Pearce, and is based on the 2012 book by Peter Heller. But does it ever, like Elordi’s pilot character, Hig, take off? Here’s what we thought:

What is The Dog Stars about?

The Dog Stars is set in a near-future where things have gone seriously wrong on Earth: a devastating virus has wiped out most of humanity, leaving only pockets of survivors. In a town in Colorado, we meet Hig (Elordi), a former mechanic who lives with his dog Jasper, and has company from gruff survivalist Bangely (Brolin), once a survivalist back when the world was upright. Hig is kept from going spare by his passion for flying his small prop plane, partly to escape into the sky and partly to collect supplies.

It’s on one of those trips that he picks up a radio signal that indicates life elsewhere, but Bangely is more hesitant to track it down. Hig remains adamant that one day he’ll find its source. He decides to make good on his vow after an ambush upends things. Setting off, he soon meets two other survivors: father and daughter Pops (Guy Pearce) and Cima (Qualley), who, despite initial tensions, team up with him.

It’s a good set-up to be sure, buffeted by the fact that the plot is drawing from the novel, which seems a little prophetic in that Covid would unravel only 8 years after its publication. While I haven’t read the book, it received glowing praise at the time for its narrative and writing. However, the problem with this film version is that the story just isn’t that interesting- at least in the way Scott tells it. Like almost all Ridley misfires- think Prometheus, Napoleon and Exodus Gods and Kings– it’s not wholly bad, but rather lacking in execution. It’s quite plodding, and missing some oomph that you feel a tense apocalypse movie should have, the sense that it could all go perilously wrong for our characters at any moment.

Jacob Elordi and Margaret Qualley’s performances

While Elordi has already had a big year so far- I thought he was good in Wuthering Heights, and he also appeared in the last season of Euphoria– his role in The Dog Stars is more forgettable. It is not a bad performance, but neither is it hugely compelling, and it is mostly a solid enough performance that would do better in a stronger film. Despite being the lead, it feels like he lacks the power to anchor the whole thing- at least in this film.

Josh Brolin is almost always watchable, and he proves to be here, and with such a glowing body of work he doesn’t have much to prove. But it’s nothing particularly new from him. Qualley, who was also in the also disappointing How to Make a Killing a few months ago, is also solid, and she and Elordi, whose characters become love interests, do gel quite well together on screen- there’s potential there.

What kind of film should I expect?

Part of the issue, I think, is that The Dog Stars has possibly been mismarketed. By billing it as a post-apocalyptic thriller with some elements of sci-fi and action, it paints a specific idea in audiences’ minds of what to expect. The film, however, ultimately seems to be going for something a bit different to that, something a bit deliberately slow and more thematic. This isn’t a weighty, desolate and bleak apocalypse where everyone has gone to hell like The Road or even Mad Max. It has a more hopeful, almost positive message (some have even labelled it as in the “hopecore” trend). But due to the already discussed problems of narrative and pacing, it never gets its message fully off the ground.

Like I say, this is not a bad film- some of the reception I’ve seen has been too harsh and eager to slate it, but it did leave me quite unenthused, and there are better end-of-the-world stories out there. But the 88-year-old Scott has recently said he’s making a Treasure Island film, and I’m certainly still interested in seeing it.

Like I say, this is not a bad film- some of the reception I’ve seen has been too harsh and eager to slate it, but it did leave me quite unenthused, and there are better end-of-the-world stories out there.