Pop Culture Happy Hour - The Dog Stars

Episode Date: August 31, 2026

In the new post-apocalyptic film The Dog Stars, a virus has wiped out most of humanity and the survivors eke out a meager existence trying to stay alive. Sound like an oh-too-familiar tale? What if it featured stars like Jacob Elordi, Margaret Qualley, and Allison Janney? And was directed by Ridley Scott and based on a best-selling novel? Would it be enough to pull you in? Should it be? Want more action from Hollywood’s biggest directors? Check out these episodes: Spielberg revisits aliens and alienation in ‘Disclosure Day’'Gladiator II': Are you not entertained? Still? Again? Some more?‘The Odyssey’ is an ancient tale on a modern budgetConnect with Pop Culture Happy Hour:Letterboxd / FacebookOur weekly newsletterSupport public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

So before we get to the show, we've got a message for those hardcore pop culture happy hour listeners out there. Take a second and leave the show a rating. It really does help other folks find the show, and we do read them like this one from username Patio Khan. Quote, I love the episodes where the four hosts have something to share and discuss. Today they talked about the reality show they could win. It just seems like they really like each other and have a sympathetic vibe going, unquote. Well, thank you, Patio Khan, for leaving that comment that tells me that my cunning plan to pass among you all, faking human emotions until I can summon the mothership is preceding apace.

But again, thank you for taking a moment to share your thoughts. It really does matter to us. In the new post-apocalyptic film The Dog Stars, a virus has wiped out most of humanity, and the survivors eke out a meager existence scavenging from the remains of civilization while defending themselves against feral raiders and each other. Now, you're probably thinking to yourself, that sounds familiar. Well, what if we told you it was directed by really? at least Scott, and based on a best-selling novel,

and then features stars like Jacob Allorty, Josh Brolin, Margaret Qualley, and Guy Pearce. Would it change your mind? Should it? I don't know. I'm Ayesha Harris. And I'm Glenn Weldon, and joining us today on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour is writer and host of the Film Spotting Podcast movie Death Match, Chris Climic, A, Chris.

Delighted to be back on PCHHG, Glenn, because I don't want to end up on the damn Heraldo show. There we go. See, you thought I was going to go Blade Runner or Alien or something, but nope. Filma and Louise, baby. Thelma and Louise. All right.

And the reason you're doing that is the Ridley Scott of it all, which we will get to. So in The Dog Stars, Jacob Alluredy is Higg, a pilot living in the Colorado Rockies, who somehow keeps his Cessna flying, despite, you know, the end of the world. He and his dog, Jasper,

are holed up in an armed camp with the gruff Bangley, played by Josh Brolin. Higg isn't quite the isolationist that Bangley is, though, so he spends his days doing good deeds for others. One day, a dramatic turn of events leads him to fly west and look for survivors who aren't content to merely survive,

who might even be trying to restore humanity. Along the way he meets folks played by Margaret Qualley, Guy Pearce, and a scenery chewing Alice and Jenny. The Dog Stars is based on Peter Haller's novel. It's in theaters now. Aisha, tell me, talk to me. What'd you think? Well, look, I've heard some people who have been complaining

about the fact that we don't have movie stars anymore and we don't have strong male heroes, and we don't have the old American way of thinking about what it means to be a hero and survive. And I look at them and I say, well, here's a movie that might fit a lot of those things you're looking for because this is a movie with Jacob Allorty, who is playing a type of character we've seen many, many times before.

He's kind of perfect, not a lot of roughness around the edges other than the fact that his wife is dead, and that's like his whole thing. And I was fascinated by this because it's post-apocalyptic, but it doesn't really feel post-apocalyptic. It hints at these things, but there's not really a lore or like a world that's created around it. It kind of feels like norm core sci-fi.

It's like everyone looks very, well, there are Mennonites, but then there are like, you know, Margaret Kwali, who is just like farmwoman and industrial and Guy Pearce, who's farm pops and all. all these things and that it ends with like a folksy song as a credits roll. It's fine. Like, I didn't dislike it, but it's the type of movie where I'm just not going to think about this again a week from now. Like, I will forget I saw this movie. And I kind of wanted something a little bit more. I think Alice and Janney, and we can get back to her, but I think she's like

the closest we get to something weird in this movie. I wanted more weird. So what I used. So, yeah, that's my takeaway here. All right. You heard of here first. Listeners, Aisha Harris wanted more lore and more zombies. Weirdness. Weirdness. It doesn't need to be lore. It just needed to be weird. Okay. All right, Chris, Ridley Scott. He's your bailiwick. What'd you think? Yeah, well, like Aisha, I noted the fact that this virus has spared only the very hottest of humanity. This is the world when the aging near death, superannuated people look like Guy Pearce and Josh Roland. I mean, I really, this was only on my radar because of the Ridley Scott of it all. And as critics, I think we should be very careful about being too effusive or too vague in our opinion. So I am prepared to say,

everyone, that of the movies Ridley Scott has made since he turned 80, this is my second favorite. Okay. It's no the last duel. But I mean, it's interesting to me to look at this in the arc of his whole career. I mean, this is a man who is older than Spielberg, older than Martin Scorsese, older than Michael Mann, you know, just to name the directors in his cohort who are still working. But those other three, I think, are working on really personal stuff. And like, we are never going to see the Ridley Scott version of the fablements. Right. Right. Like, Ridley Scott is just, I mean, he made Napoleon didn't like that very much. I mean, Gladiator 2. Okay. You know, Denzel was funny, but I mean, I haven't thought about that movie since it ended. This was, you know, work for hire from him, some

novel that came across his desk. And it's really only of interest to me in that context, because here's a guy, and I think you actually made this point when you guys were discussing it. I think it was the last duals, a few years ago, but like how if, you know, if Ridley Scott had retired or died or something at the end of the 80s, we would have felt like we had a pretty solid handle on his identity as an artist. And we don't, you know, this is a guy who like got to our old conception or, you know, outdated or maybe kind of ageist notion of retirement age and just like hit the gas, you know, started working much faster. And, you know, this is a well-made kind of middling movie. I mean, he's never been an actor's director. He is an outstanding visual

storyteller. I don't think anyone could have shot this movie better, but, you know, it's not immersive in the way that Ridley Scott's best films are. And I mean, that's always been the knock on him is that he creates an environment that's so detailed and rich that it kind of subsumes the story. And when it's a world as unfamiliar as it was at the time, an alien or Blade Runner or even like Black Hawk Down, you know, a war movie of a more modern sort that we hadn't really seen at that time, then that's enough. And here, the world he's conjuring is so much like so many other things that It kind of seems like a waste of his talents. Yeah, I'm glad you're talking about the choices he's making nowadays because, look, this didn't hit for me either.

In the press materials, Scott has been saying, you know, his goal is always to avoid cliche. So why he chose the post-apocalyptic genre as a medium to do that, it's just beyond me. I mean, look, as a culture, we have been hip deep, nipple deep, neck deep, eyebrow deep in these stories for years and years now. And of course, there's always a fresh way. And there always is. but this ain't it. This story is so what you see is what you get. And this screenplay on a dialogue level, it's so bare bones.

It's the kind where characters keep telling each other what kind of world it is. And we're choosing the point of view of Higg. There's a virus. We ran out of vaccines years ago. Glenn, you remember that? Remember when we ran out of the vaccines? You're making my point. This is it.

Yeah. But to Aisha's point, I mean, Higg, this character is drawn so thinly. He seems to have nothing going on except that he is a good person, capital G, capital And God knows I'm not looking for another anti-hero. That's not the vibe. Right. But when we're setting this in a world that is famously about people having to make tough choices and moral compromises and living with regrets. And then he give us this one-note Boy Scout who, even the thing, we do eventually find out that he regrets something.

He feels guilty about something. It is not nearly as chewy and troubling as he seems to think it is because the script is giving him an out. And, Aish, again, you're right. It takes about the third act for this time. stuff to get weird. When they do, it gets fun weird. You're also waiting in a movie like this. Inevitably, I think, for like an orgy of violence. We do get more than one. And that's fun and that's satisfying. But we had to sit through some really on the nose dialogue and some very stick figure, simple motivations from characters. This is Latter-day Ridley Scott, to your point. I mean,

this is House of Gucci, Ridley Scott. This is a mighty thin gruel. All right, talk to me more about this, Ayesha. There were some things I could tell you were holding back. Well, okay, look. Well, I want to ask Glenn when he says, you know, we've been neck deep or nipple deep in this, I'm sorry for interrupting. But I want to know, are you talking about a Jacob Allorty neck or nipple? Because this is a tall guy. Like, let's set some signpost. He also said eyebrow deep.

So for any, like, either way, we're submerged. I can't even reach Jacob Alorti's eyebrows. I'd need to step on a letter. That's my point. That's my point, Chris. Well, here's the thing. I think that the other issue with when it finally does get interesting and weird, it goes by so quickly.

It really does. I wanted to stay there. Yeah, Alice and Janney is to dog stars, what Denzel is to Gladiator, too. They bring the eccentricity. They bring the weirdness. They destabilize the movie. They disabalize something that is otherwise pretty much a straightforward cut and dry affair. But at least Denzel is like an actual supporting character, whereas Allison Janney is just here for a hot second and then doesn't factor in anymore.

I also just think, again, the world that is being created around. these characters who are so kind of just very uninteresting. Like, we get glimpses. There's these quote unquote reapers they're called who keep coming and trying to invade their land because, again, it's post-apocalyptic. So, of course, people are like trying to get whatever they can. The way these reapers are imagined was baffling to me. Like, one group of them is like a tribe of skinheads who are like tattooed and ravenous

and just like bleeding. The warboy? The Fury Road, Warboil? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And they're just, like, bleeding. And, like, I mean, bleating as in, like, they're making noises, like, very loud and weird and just, like, what is this?

1995, like, skinheads are the villain? Cannibals, and they're so loud. And then another attack, like, another group of people attack, and, like, I can't tell if they're trying to insinuate that they're indigenous or, like, indigenous adjacent because they're wearing kind of more, quote, unquote, like, it just felt very nonspecific. and didn't really contribute at all to this idea of what it means to survive in this era.

And so, again, I didn't want more lore. I just wanted more carving out of what the world is like beyond these central characters who are not that interesting. And, you know, we got that a little bit with Alice and Jenny, but it's just not enough. And, you know, I think that if you're going to make this kind of story, like, it's a genre piece. So, of course, it's going to hit some of the same beats. But, like, you got to give us something a little different or something with. a little flavor. And it does bother me that, like, really, Scott doesn't seem to want to do that or the writers don't want to do, like, it just seems very unspecific. And I have no problem with

genre movies. Like, they exist for a reason. But if you're going to do that, at least give us something a little bit fun or weird or different to latch onto. And it's just not there. That's not the material we have here. And it's sad. Yeah. Well, we've got a lot more to talk about. We'll be right back after this break. Welcome back. Chris, talk to me. What are you thinking about? So I thought a lot about I Am Legend, which is, you know, the Will Smith. I mean, huge, huge hit, right? And I mean, that was adapted from a much older novel. That was not even the first adaptation of the novel of Mega Man, I think. You know, and I think that's a really good movie for the first half. And for me, it kind of falls apart when it turns out, oh, other humans have survived.

But I mean, that was a movie I was thinking about in the early stages of this one, you know, for obvious reasons. I mean, it's Jacob Allorty and his dog, you know, mournfully surveying the planes and, you know, being sad about what has befallen humanity. And, you know, I think the attempt to differentiate this a little bit comes in the fact that Alorty was not a superhero. I mean, he was a mechanic. You know, he was the Will Smith character in that movie. Like, he is also the top scientist who is researching the origins of this terrible outbreak and, you know, but also a tough guy. And, like, he has all of the skills and all the superpowers. And that's probably why that's a much, much more commercial.

version of this story. Yeah. I mean, there is in this film exactly one scene between Kwali and Alorti that feels like, oh, we're going to dig into these characters now. We're going to go beneath the surface. We're going to make them maybe a little harder to pin down, a little bit more layered. Get a little grit in the

gears, right? And then that gets ditched almost immediately. This film's approach to sex is also weirdly chased and buttoned up. Did that feel a little Gen Z to you? Like the moment where Kuali is just like, is this okay? Before we cut, which I appreciated. I don't know.

I couldn't put my finger up, but it's not like a summer blockbuster. It doesn't feel. It's not fun. I mean, there are set pieces, and Alice and Jenny's always fun because she can't not be, but like, I can't figure out who this movie's for. Yeah, it's a weird time for it to come out. It definitely feels like for a film of this scale, modestly budgeted. You know, we haven't mentioned the locations yet. I mean, this is a film that's meant to take place in Colorado, all shot in Italy, which I thought was interesting.

And for a, I don't know if we would call this a presumptive blockbuster, but for a film that definitely has some scale and some big set pieces, is like pretty modestly budgeted, certainly less expensive than the last few Ridley Scott films. So I kind of feel like the math on this is all cooked out already, right? Like this movie does not have to have much of a commercial or cultural impact to be a good investment. And, you know, it just feels like this is Ridley Scott's version of a blank check,

I guess, where it's like he doesn't have something that he has been waiting his entire life to put on screen like, say, Megalopolis. Yeah. You know, where like at great creative risk to himself, he's going to do it in his senior years. I think he just wants to keep working and, you know, wants to work with the hot young stars. And I mean, I admire that. I admire a guy who doesn't want to be idle, you know, who wants to work. But that doesn't, you know, for me as a viewer, as an audience, that's just not reasoned enough to get me there.

Yeah. And it's not going to get maybe a lot of people there because am I right that this kind of snuck up on folks this movie? Like, I mean, this is a summer film, sci-fi adjacent, directed by Ridley Scott, starring actual movie stars with, as you say, a big but not huge budget, this should have been what people were talking about, no? I mean, like, this didn't feel like the most buzzed about film in the summer. This came out of nowhere for me. Is that just, this is what happens toward the end of a career? Is this what's going on? I don't know. I think it's probably a combination of things. I mean, these are stars, but they're not necessarily like none of them are Zendaya.

I mean, it's like, you know, there's only so much that that star power. Someone should put Zendaya in a movie this summer. That would be a great idea. And actually give her something to do? Yeah, I would love that. Yeah. No, I mean, I think it's a couple of things. I think it's the fact that this is a post-apocalyptic movie, and we've had so many of these, especially in the last five, six years after we kind of experience very much what this movie is about, which is a virus,

which is wiping out a huge chunk of the population. So I don't know if people were exactly clamoring for that kind of thing unless it's something that's already been sort of established, like The Last of Us or something. that. And then on top of that, I do think that it's just the movie business is a gamble. And we don't know how long, I don't know how long this movie has been in the works. The book came out in 2012. I think it was a hit, but I haven't read the book. So I don't know. These things can take a long time to jestate and then eventually get made. And perhaps it's just like, when it went into production, they thought we got a hit. And now it's like, I don't know. Do we want this right now? I don't. And I don't know if audiences are going to either. Yeah. All right. Well, this movie, it's a head scratcher. While you're watching it, it's a head scratcher in terms of its lasting cultural footprint. And this is lesser Ridley Scott. And if that works for you, this is going to work for you. That brings us to the end of our show, Chris Klimick, Aisha Harris. Thank you so much for being here and help me scratch my damn head. Thank you. Thank you, Glenn. Help to Scratch anytime, buddy. Yes. This episode was produced by Leonard Sherburn and Mike Katz. Have been edited by our show under Jessica Reedy. And hello, come in, provides our theme music. Thank you for listening to Pop Culture.

Happy Hour from NPR. I'm Glenn Weldon, and we'll see you all next time.