The Dog Stars
Let’s begin with a film about a boy and his dog. Sorry, that was a reference to the 1975 satirical post-apocalyptic film A Boy and His Dog, directed by L.Q. Jones, co-written by the sci-fi writer Harlan Ellison and starring a very young Don Johnson. The Dog Stars is something quite different, even if it does – for the first half hour – feature a young man named Hig (played by Jacob Elordi) and his dog. The rest, though – as directed by the 88-year-old Scott from Heller’s novel – follows a plotline about that same young man, having survived a world-wide epidemic that has killed near everyone else and who is living with an able survivalist (played by Josh Brolin). But haunted by his past, Hig is ever seeking … well, basically something else. Following in line with similar stories – the Jones-Ellison film for one, but many others as well, including the HBO miniseries The Last of Us – The Dog Stars is a study of survival in a brutal world and what that means. Yet despite a few surprises, and engaging performances by Brolin and, briefly, Allison Janney – not to mention some breath-taking views of Italy’s mountain ranges passing for Colorado – this sentimental melodrama adds little that is new or meaningful to an already-crowded sub-genre of film.
Coyote vs. Acme
Let’s now move to something even more fictionally survival-oriented called Coyote vs. Acme. If that title sounds a bit familiar, you’re probably somewhat older than today’s typical audience member. That’s because it refers to characters in a cartoon series that began way back in 1948 by the late, great Chuck Jones. Jones’ idea was to feature a speedy road runner and the coyote, cleverly called Wile. E. Coyote, who is in constant pursuit of him. The conceit is that Coyote never succeeds. And the conceit of Coyote vs. Acme, a blend of live action and animation directed by Dave Green, is that one major reason why is because the Acme-made tools he uses are defective – intentionally so. Realizing this, despite being an actual cartoon character, Coyote seeks out the services of a small-time Albuquerque, N.M., attorney played by the real-life Will Forte in an attempt to sue Acme, which is the world’s biggest corporate entity. What Green and his screenwriters come up with is yet another David vs. Goliath story, one that is patently absurd but occasionally hilarious, especially to those of us who grew up rooting for Coyote to once, just once, get his paws somewhere near that super-brisk bird.
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