Parents' Guide to The Dog Stars

In this competent survival thriller, director Ridley Scott delivers validation to preppers. The Dog Stars offers viewers the satisfaction of watching people with physical, practical skills—building, fixing, sharpshooting, piloting, homesteading, farming, defending—do them well enough to survive in terrible times. At times, the movie plays much more like a 1950s Western than a sci-fi end-of-the-world thriller. Male characters all tough, grizzled, and formidable (mess with them, and you'll be sorry) but with soft hearts for women, a loyal dog, and good whiskey. And Cima (Margaret Qualley), the only woman in the main quartet of characters, is a capable caretaker, living alone on a ranch with her father (Guy Pearce) after the passing of her husband. And, of course, she's also a love interest. They've all reconnected with nature out of necessity, and viewers are meant to realize that the end of the world perhaps also looks like the beginning of civilization—that is, if humans can trust each other to form alliances.

The movie's pace is slow, the messaging obscure, and, at one point, the tone completely changes in a Twilight Zone-type encounter that stretches the believable structure that's been established. All of that could be a turn off for some viewers. Bottom line? Like Hig's little yellow Cessna, the ride takes its time, hits some bumpy pockets, and sometimes glides without much powering it—but when it lands, you're still likely to feel that you've arrived somewhere worth exploring.