Parents' Guide to Digger

It's a little long and loves a monologue, but this is a brilliantly creative hard shake to get people to do something before humanity is wiped out by a vengeful Mother Nature. In Digger, writer-director Alejandro G. Iñárritu masterfully crafts a wild, sizzling spectacle that keeps surprising viewers: As soon as we feel comfortable in the story being told to us, he uses his peeler to yank back a layer of this savory doomsday onion, revealing that we actually weren't seeing the full picture. It's jarring but incredibly entertaining. Are we being preached at? Totally! But does it make us laugh? Definitely! (There's even an explanation in the movie of why laughter is essential for managing our emotions in the face of disaster.)

What's so smart—fingers crossed that it actually works—is that Iñárritu makes every moment meme-able to make it memorable. There are speeches aplenty that are just begging to be digitally cropped and inserted into a TikTok opinion piece or posted as a response on a social media forum. Goodman's icky U.S. president becomes increasingly more awful with every bad decision, ensuring that every world leader who flubs a major decision will be compared to him with a keystroke. And Cruise ... he's an absolute wonder, with every facial expression a dead-on impression of what many of us likely imagine the most powerful oilman in the world would be like. Think he's too over the top? Nope, he's perfect—and he seems destined to be the inspiration for parodies and Halloween costumes, which is absolutely the point. The more often we're reminded, the more we can't forget. Try to avoid spoilers before watching if you can, and wrangle teens to join you: It's an overflowing suitcase of conversational opportunity, begging to be unpacked.