Richard Crouse

SYNOPSIS: In “The Dog Stars,” a new post-apocalyptic science fiction movie now playing in theatres, Jacob Elordi and Josh Brolin play survivors of a devastating flu pandemic that has almost eradicated humanity.

CAST: Jacob Elordi, Josh Brolin, Margaret Qualley, Allison Janney, Guy Pearce, Benedict Wong. Directed by Ridley Scott.

REVIEW: Like many dystopian/pandemic movies, “The Dog Stars” has several large-scale action sequences where survivors defend their land from feral intruders. They’re big, loud and exciting and entirely not the point of the film.

Set nine years after a flu pandemic and blood disease ended almost all life on earth, former mechanic Hig (Jacob Elordi) lives in an abandoned Colorado airport with his dog Jasper and tough-as-nails former neighbor Marine Bangley (Josh Brolin). “The world that was doesn’t exist,” says Hig. “Here it’s just us… trying to hold on to what was.”

Together they guard against outside threats, other desperate survivors willing to use lethal force to gather supplies and food. “Out there, it’s kill or be killed,” Bangley says. “The only thing left to fear… survivors.”

The new world order sits uneasily on Hig’s mind. “This world fits you, Bangley. Wake up, defend, survive,” he says. “I think you were ready for it 10 years before it hit. I was a   mechanic. When I wasn’t doing that, I was kissing my wife and playing with my dog, wondering every day how I got so lucky.”

Still grieving the loss of his wife, Hig holds out hope that there is a better world out there somewhere. His source of hope stems from a faint radio signal from years ago, a voice that pushes him to search for a new life in a new world. “There’s gotta be something better than this,” he says.

Director Ridley Scott, working from a screenplay by Mark L. Smith, certainly knows how to stage big action but “The Dog Stars” isn’t exactly an action movie. Instead, it’s a bittersweet story of lost and found relationships that works best when it isn’t trying to fill the screen with fireworks.

After a slow start Scott begins to develop his themes when Hig, on his way to a better world, connects with father and daughter duo Jack (Guy Pearce) and Cima (Margaret Qualley). It’s here the movie begins to differentiate itself from other end-of-the-world/survival films and shows like “The Road” or “The Walking Dead.” In its quieter moments, such as the look of happiness tinged by a sense of what has been lost that spreads across Cima’s face as she hears music for the first time in years, that the movie finds something new to say within the dystopian genre.

The picture “The Dog Stars” paints a grim picture of the post-apocalyptic world but it also understands that all is not lost if the plague survivors hold on to their humanity.