In 2018, a golfing buddy asked me to review The Kissing Booth, a direct-to-streaming release on Netflix.  It wasn’t because it was good (he hadn’t even seen it) but rather, it starred a young man he went to school with at Nudgee College here in Brisbane.  I watched and thought it was trash, but in the weeks that followed, it became a cult-hit amongst teenage girls and Aussie star Jacob Elordi surpassed one million Instagram followers.

It was Elordi’s “big break” and you can picture those two words in the largest font possible.  He has since worked under directors including Adrian Lyne, Sofia Coppola, Emerald Fennell, Paul Schrader, and Guillermo del Toro.  Earlier this year, at the age of 28, he earned his first Academy Award nomination for his supporting performance as the Creature in Frankenstein.  His stellar run continues in The Dog Stars where he takes the lead role under the guidance of acclaimed director Ridley Scott (Blade Runner, Gladiator).

I’ve found Elordi’s outings to be hit and miss (Saltburn remains my personal favourite) but in the case of The Dog Stars, his work is top-notch.  It’s reminiscent of the subtle, muted performance we saw last year from fellow Australian Joel Edgerton in Train Dreams.  It’s set in the wilderness, and his character doesn’t have much to say at all – partly because of his scarred, introverted nature and partly because there’s no one to talk to.  He goes about his days with nonchalance and finds simple pleasures alongside his loyal dog.

I should provide more narrative context at this point.  The film is set in the year 2035 where highly contagious virus has largely wiped-out humanity.  Only a small number survived and one of them is Hig (Elordi), a mechanic who has found refuge at a makeshift shelter in the mountains of Colorado.  He’s self-reliant (he can cook, fix things, fly a plane) and he lives there alongside Bangley (Brolin), a content ex-Marine who adds security measures to keep their encampment safe.

To what is likely to be annoying to some, this isn’t a 28 Days Later-type thriller with folks constantly running from blood-covered, flesh-eating zombies.  It’s a more reflective piece that asks us to consider how we’d react in a similar situation. There’s no single answer and this is evident looking at the contrast between the two housemates.  Bangley is happy with his routine-filled existence and has no desire to change it.  On the flip side, Hig has become lonely and, in taking on more risk, wants to fly his small plane to nearby locations in search of adventure and other survivors.

Based on a 2012 novel authored by American Peter Heller, it’s an awkward adaptation.  The “action” scenes are the weaker parts as we rush through with little background or explanation as to who the adversaries are.  A sequence involving Oscar-winner Allison Janney (I, Tonya) is weird and feels like it belongs in a different movie.  Still, I was swept up by the film’s themes, music and cinematography, and I can see why Ridley Scott was attracted to the source material.

The Dog Stars may be set in an apocalyptic fantasy world, but its messages will hopefully resonate with the real-life people who see it.