Alexandria, VA – The dog days of August delivered two films that, other than plots dealing with end-of-the-world (as we know it) doomsday management strategies, marked the return to the tried and true Hollywood trope of scene-stealing pooches. In one, a family and their dog stand opposed to a new world transformed after a cosmic event irrevocably obliterated their neighborhood. In the other, Jacob Elordi navigates his own post-apocalyptic reality after a virus eradicates humanity.
The End of Oak Street’s Jurassic bark offers a diverting twist on the family-confronts-paleo-world genre. Produced by otherworldsmith J.J. Abrams, with a screenplay by director David Robert Mitchell, it’s Land of the Lost on steroids. Think Sid and Marty Croft approached Amblin Entertainment hyping a boffo socko pitch of a PG-13 version with a more realistic depiction of dinosaurs, and where the stars are chomped on like Jaws 5: Megalodontics.
The film works nonetheless. A-listers Academy Award winner Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor hold down the fort, fortify their marriage, and anchor the plot. Hathaway has enjoyed a big year with three films released, depicting the resolute female/mother savior archetype all while pregnant with her third child.
Hathaway may well walk home with another Oscar for her portrayal as Penelope in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. Certainly she’ll get lots of noms. Of all her performances in 2026, however, her portrayal as Denise Brandt may well be her most memorable. Consider the recent visionary casting of starlet Scarlett Johansson as the bad-ass heroine in yet another Jurassic lark reprise.
Capsizing perceptions and stereotypes is powerful stuff. It’s always nice to see Ewan McGregor. Portraying the understated and overwhelmed family man may well prove to be his new niche. Pivoting to Jacob Elordi… Did I mention Jacob Elordi? At 6’ 5” it’s hard to be understated – or overwhelmed. Elordi manages to express profound vulnerability whether protagonist or antagonist. Perhaps it’s that puppy-dog look.
The Dog Stars is an adaptation by Mark L. Smith of the 2012 novel by Peter Heller in which Hig (Elordi) survives a global pandemic living in an abandoned airplane hangar along with his faithful, aging dog Jasper and his sole human companion, Bangley, a gun-toting survivalist (Josh Brolin). Directed by master of apocalyptic enigma Ridley Scott, The Dog Stars features Margaret Qualley (The Substance) as Hig’s emotional rescue person, Cima, and Benedict Wong, who also starred in Weapons, as did Josh Brolin.
Scott has previously worked with Wong. It’s at first a bit challenging to erase the memory of Brolin’s Archer Graff and the demise of Wong’s Marcus Miller in Weapons, least of all Qualley’s Sue in The Substance. Guy Pearce (The Brutalist) as Pops grounds the cast back to the storyline. This isn’t Heathcliff Elordi, by the way. More Harrison Ford’s Rick Deckard than Saltline’s Felix.
The Dog Stars doesn’t disappoint. Book lovers won’t likely complain that the novel was
better. Cinemaphiles will be most satisfied. IS the world prepared for such pervasive post-apocalyptic film treatments post-pandemic? Too soon? It may well be only the beginning.
Meantime At Z MovieZ remains Team Scott, Team Elordi, and Team Dog Stars – AND dogs as stars! Go Jasper! GO Starbuck! I kid you not.
