Photo by Fabio Lovino/© 2026 20th Century Studios.
Jacob Elordi and Margaret Qualley - The Dog Stars (2026)
(L-R) Jacob Elordi as Hig and Margaret Qualley as Cima in 20th Century Studios' 'The Dog Stars' (2026).
The Dog Stars
(In Theaters Aug. 28)
At 88, director Ridley Scott continues to deliver adventurous films, even if this one is less bombastic than his usual. Adapted from the 2012 novel by Peter Heller, his apocalyptic tale features a post-pandemic world seen through the eyes of young pilot Hig (Jacob Elordi). A Belgian Malinois named Jasper is Hig’s loyal companion, but the pilot also shares daily life with sharpshooter Bangley (Josh Brolin), who helps to guard Hig’s plane and their airplane-hangar home from marauding gangs.
Hig frequently flies off to search for remnants of civilization and eventually, he meets a young woman and her father (Margaret Qualley and Guy Pearce) with whom he forms a bond. At two hours in length with few action sequences, some may find the pace tedious. Yet, the film’s nuanced performances, unfolding against eye-popping landscapes, make solid contributions to this exploration of Hig’s search for meaning in a world gone wrong. Pivotal character roles are expertly handled by Allison Janney and Benedict Wong. (Lisa Miller)
L.A. Guns-Live from the Guild Theatre
(MVD Visual Blu-ray)
The lights go up in the darkened theater and L.A. Guns explode into “Cannonball,” a slab of Pete Townshend power-chording for the metal age. The 2025 concert, recorded at Menlo Park, CA’s Guild Theatre, is an 83-minute set crammed with 16 songs including the memorable racket of “Speed” and “Rip and Tear.” Firmly wedded to ‘70s hard rock, the performance races by on the strength of guitar crunch. (David Luhrssen)
The Stranger
(Music Box Films DVD/Blu-ray)
Albert Camus’ 1942 novella, The Stranger, endures as a classic—not just of French but of world literature. The Stranger has been made into a movie several times. The latest, in 2025, by French director François Ozon, is superb.
Ozon filmed The Stranger in black and white, opening with archival footage of the setting, Algiers, the jewel of France’s most prized colonial possession. Ozon bumped the timeline forward by a decade. The graffiti signals the upcoming bloody uprising that resulted in Algeria’s independence and the expulsion of nearly one million French residents. Look closely, a sign in a cinema lobby reads: “No Indigenous Allowed.”
The Stanger’s antihero (there are no heroes), Meursault, falls into an altercation with an Indigenous gang, killing one. It was apolitical, stemming from a dispute over honor with Meursault’s only friend, Raymond, a pimp. Meursault reacts to the killing with an indifference little different than his response to his mother’s death, his workplace, his girlfriend Marie, his elderly neighbor. When he takes Marie to the cinema to see a comedy, he’s the only audience member who doesn’t laugh.
Meursault often sees himself in mirrors in Ozon’s depiction, staring blankly. Nowadays we’d suspect profound clinical depression? Camus diagnosed Meursault as suffering from a failure to honor the humanity he shared with everyone he encountered. (David Luhrssen)
