8:45 p.m.	A Boy and His Dog L.Q. Jones (U.S., 1975)

Aboveground all is a barren stretch, populated by marauding scavengers picking through the wreckage of World War III. A savvy survivor, Vic (Don Johnson), and his dog Blood forage for food, garb, and the occasional female. Against the advice of his sardonic mutt—a telepathic canine with a Mensa I.Q.—Vic decides to go “down under” to a subsurface colony fashioned after 1930s Kansas. This middle-American idyll of gingham and dungarees welcomes Vic with open (or, more accurately, amorous) arms. Though trimmed and well provisioned, “Topeka” is not the pastoral community it seems, but rather a rustic reactionary regime. Adapted from Harlan Ellison’s novella, A Boy and His Dog dutifully re-creates his vision of a civilization wasting away on nostalgia. The sterility of this bucolic society has seeped from spirit to loin, leaving the populace incapable of sowing its own seed. But Vic, a fecund free agent, finds that this ain’t Kansas anymore.

—Steve Seid

• Written by Jones, based on the novella by Harlan Ellison. Photographed by John Arthur Morrill. With Don Johnson, Susanne Benton, Tim McIntire, Jason Robards. (91 mins, Color, 35mm, From First Run Features)