In a post-apocalyptic world, a virus wipes out humanity. Survivors face roaming scavengers called Reapers. Protagonist Hig, a pilot, survived the flu but lost his wife.

A slow and melodic movie, The Dog Stars unfolds rather quietly, which isn’t a bad thing if you know what you’re getting into. This allows for beautiful shots of (what passes for) the Rocky Mountains and the mostly desolate landscape of a dystopian Colorado, years after a virus wiped out a lot of humanity in ways the movie doesn’t really get into.

Two survivors, Hig (Jacob Elordi) and Bangley (Josh Brolin) have formed a seemingly reluctant partnership of survival, posting up in a makeshift bunker outside Eerie, Colorado, save for those moments when Hig flies his little prop plane into Denver to ransack the ghost town for supplies, along with his trusty dog, Jasper. But, as things often do in a dystopia, shit goes sideways. And Hig enlists the help of some other survivors, Cima (Margaret Qualley) and Pops (Guy Pearce).

The movie feels a lot like reading a book, with long thoughtful passages on the landscape disrupted only occasionally by the onslaught of non-descript bad guys, at least until a final third sequence goes into truly bizarre territory.

Helmed by master director Ridley Scott, The Dog Stars looks beautiful and has some nice performances and eschews some of the tropes movies like this tend to fall into. But it also feels a little disjointed at times and maybe leaves a little too much up to the imagination. And I’m still not sure how I feel about that last segment.

Jonathan’s grade – C