“The Dog Stars”
Ridley Scott has been down apocalyptic-ish roads before, notably with game changing sci-fi classics “Alien” (1979) and “Blade Runner” (1982). In “The Dog Stars,” adapted from Peter Heller’s 2012 novel, we trek through uneven end-of-times terrain. A virus has wiped out most of humanity, leaving Hig (Jacob Elordi), a skilled mechanic and bush pilot aviator who lost his wife during the pandemic, holed up at an abandoned Colorado airfield with his dog Jasper (a handsome and regal German Shepherd) and Bangley (Josh Brolin), a heavily armed ex-Marine. Bangley’s survivalist instincts are considerably sharper than Hig’s — the dude retrieves his casings to repoint the bullets so he can use them again. There are marauders roaming about, and somehow the grid is still limping along. Hig picks up a faint radio transmission, and the possibility of other survivors lures him out of his relatively secure perimeter and into the unknown.
It’s an intriguing setup, and Scott can still give scorched-earth spectacle scale and tactile heft (the man is something of a world building master), but “Dog Stars” never settles into a satisfying rhythm. It also has a lot of nagging questions that hang around like pugnacious mosquitos. The plot lurches and splits between Hig (the main focus), Bangley, who remains behind, and the so-called Reapers, bloodthirsty looters who look fresh out of a 1990s mosh pit. They seemingly have created their own language and alphabet — the why, another gnat buzz. The best and most bizarre is Allison Janney as the matriarch of a small, insular community with specialized culinary leanings (don’t look in the meat locker) and a retro bent — the interior of the hive is practically a verbatim recreation of J. F. Sebastian’s flat of replicant misprints in “Blade Runner.”
One problem with the film is that as Hig, Elordi, while blessed with the physical dimensions of a post-apocalyptic hero, never quite convinces us he’s the hardened, macho survivor the film needs. Brolin, by contrast, wears Bangley’s wary, shoot-first pragmatism as comfortably as an old field jacket. The rapport between the two works but doesn’t feel as genuine as the narrative insists.
Hig’s journey leads him to Cima (Margaret Qualley) and her father, Pops (Guy Pearce), opening the possibility of connection — and romance — in a world reduced to isolation and suspicion. Here, and at a Mennonite compound near the overgrown airstrip, is where “Dog Stars” finds its humanity. But Qualley, a live wire in “Honey Don’t!“ and “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood,” is strangely muted here, lacking the sass and unpredictability that make her such a compelling screen presence.
Then there are those marauding Reapers, rendered as primal throwbacks seemingly beamed in from the era of black-and-white Westerns, replete with the genre’s cringeworthy “savage horde” imagery. It’s an unfortunate retrograde touch and a stark and lazy offset in a film ostensibly interested in what remains of our humanity after civilization disappears.
Scott keeps “The Dog Stars” muscular enough visually, but muscles aren’t the issue. Like its leading man, the film looks the part without ever fully inhabiting it. — Tom Meek
Playing at AMC Assembly Row 12, Kendall Square Cinema and Apple Cinemas Cambridge
“Dreams in Nightmares”
“I think my ancestors are trying to tell me something.” So speaks Zuleka (Denée Benton, TV’s “The Gilded Age”) of her recurring dream in “Dreams in Nightmares,” the freewheeling second feature from Shatara Michelle Ford (“Test Pattern”). Zuleka is at a crossroads, having just lost her job as a professor of creative writing. Adrift, she hops a plane from Los Angeles to Brooklyn to reunite with her best friends from college, Tasha (Sasha Compère), a type-A business consultant, and Lauren (Dezi Bing), a more easygoing trans woman.
Conversation soon turns to a fourth member of their clique, Kel, who seems to have dropped off the face of the earth. With nothing in particular holding them back (Tasha was also recently laid off, and Lauren only sporadically employed to begin with), the trio embarks on an impromptu road trip to find their friend — and themselves.
“Dreams in Nightmares” takes some time to get going, its first act burdened with occasionally strained dialogue. Like its protagonists, though, it finds its voice while on the road. “Dreams in Nightmares” takes the form of a classic road picture, and much of its pleasure lies in the detours along the way. A pit stop in Pittsburgh allows the trio to take in a show-stopping slam poetry/drag performance from a mutual acquaintance (real-life poet Joss Barton). Later, they visit Kel’s ex-girlfriend (a hilarious Jasmin Savoy-Brown) in Iowa, only to remember just why they were so relieved when their friend broke up with her. Only some of these episodes get them closer to their goal of reunion, but each, in its own way, brings clarity.
Though at times shaggy to a fault (it could easily be trimmed down to under two hours), the ragged edges of Ford’s film add to its personal feel. Films centering on Black, queer, female and nonbinary protagonists are still relatively rare, and fewer still are so keenly realized. One senses these are people Ford knows intimately, and there is joy in simply spending time with them and getting to know their rhythms. Even when the characters fight, Ford refuses to take sides; so — as in real life — we can see where each character is coming from. Zuleka might not ever know what her ancestors are trying to tell her, but as in the best of road trips, she arrives at her destination all the same. — Oscar Goff
Playing at the Brattle Theatre through 8/31
A stronger
Please consider making a financial contribution to maintain, expand and improve Cambridge Day.
We are now a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and all donations are tax deductible.
Please consider a recurring contribution.