Josh Reviews Digger
In Digger, Tom Cruise stars as Digger Rockwell, an aging multi-gazillionaire oil magnate. After using his wealth and influence to bypass procedures and regulations, a methane leak at one of his oil rigs in Greenland sets off a chain of events that threatens to unleash a global environmental catastrophe. Digger huddles with his fellow corrupt crony, U.S. President Compson (John Goodman) and his staff and military leaders, but the best they can come up with is to use their control of the internet and other forms of communication to try to hide the truth. Things go poorly from there.
Digger was directed and co-written by Alejandro G. Iñárritu. (The screenplay was also written by Alexander Dinelaris Jr., Nicolás Giacobone, & Sabina Berman.) Mr. Iñárritu’s films have been hit and miss for me. I loved Birdman, for instance, but I found The Revenant to be a punishing experience that I have no desire to ever re-watch.
Digger is a big swing. I respect it for that. It’s a pleasure to see Tom Cruise take on an actual acting performance again, and he’s every bit as much fun to watch as I’d hoped he would be. The rest of the ensemble cast is top-notch. I applaud this type of original, made-for-grown-ups type of movie. It’s also a joy to see a filmmaker as talented as Mr. Iñárritu working with a big budget and creating a film designed to be seen and enjoyed on the big screen, as opposed to streaming to one’s TV or device. The storytelling is also sophisticated; the film’s narrative doesn’t take a straightforward path. There are a number of sharp turns in the story, designed to challenge the audience. All of these are great qualities, exactly what I want more of in the movies being made and released. I and so many others have been saying for years that we need more of this type of film.
At the same time, I have to be honest that I don’t think the film works. The narrative turns were interesting, but for me they derailed the momentum of the story. In the second half I found myself impatient, even a little bored. I wasn’t as connected to any of the characters as I wanted to be, in order to be engaged with the story, and I felt I’d long since gotten the point the filmmakers were trying to make.
The film has gotten some very harsh reviews; that and its disastrous box office on its opening weekend ($8 million domestically and $20 million worldwide, on a budget of around $160 million according to deadline — it’s Tom Cruise’s worst opening in two decades; ouch!) might have you believe the film is a complete failure. I don’t think that’s the case. This is a film with interesting ideas (and dare I say important ones, about the destruction a careless humanity continues to unleash on our world) and some fantastic performances (Tom Cruise and John Goodman shine, and the supporting cast — which includes Riz Ahmed, Sandra Hüller, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jesse Plemons, Emma D’Arcy, and more — are all terrific). The film is extremely well-crafted, with some gorgeous shots. And the ending — the final moments — really pack a punch. This is an artistic, experimental film, and I respect it’s ambition even while I freely admit that it doesn’t all work. It doesn’t come together into a satisfying whole; at least it didn’t for me. Still, I’m glad to have seen it, especially on a big screen.
I have more thoughts to share, but we’re entering SPOILERS territory. The filmmakers kept much of the story of Digger hidden in the lead-up to its release, and I want to respect that.
SPOILERS ahead, so read on at your peril!
Going into Digger, I had no idea about the meta aspects of the story. I was jiving with the film for the first half-hour or so. I was enjoying Tom Cruise’s full-throated performance, and the picture the film was painting of these selfish, vainglorious bastards who are in control of the world of Digger (and, I suspect, ours as well). So I felt the rug pulled out from me when we got that first big revelation and we move out of the story we’d been watching to understand that what we’re seeing is actually a rehearsal for a play performance. That was obviously meant to be a surprise, and it really got me. The problem is that I felt the film lost its storytelling momentum at that point, and it never recovered. I was far more interested in the story of Digger and his increasingly unhinged attempts to keep control of events spiraling out of control on an increasingly global scale, than I was about actor Curtis Markson, who is bickering with his director and worried about his daughter.
I appreciated the point being made, that even in the world of this film, climate crisis was real and inescapable. The meta twist is a clever way to try to double the impact of this point, as we see both worlds of the movie (that of Digger and of Curtis) effected by these events. That point really lands in the film’s devastating final moments, when we hear an alarm sound and see the play’s audience don their gas masks to trudge out of the theater and into a hellish reality that feels scarily possible. That ending was, I think, the best part of the film for me. But I found the journey getting there, particularly in the film’s second half, to be dull and scattershot. There were great moments. Holy hell is Tom Cruise magnificent in his fire-breathing speech to the European tribunal, laying out, Colonel Jessup style, why we need him on that wall. The movie is worth seeing for that scene along. Tom Cruise is as magnetic as he’s ever been. But even in that sequence, the artificiality served, for me at least, to diminish the tension and keep me at arms length, emotionally, from the story unfolding. (In that respect, it made me think of Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis, and that’s probably not the filmmaking team’s desired effect.)
The film also had me thinking a lot about Adam McCay’s 2022 film Don’t Look Up, which was also a satire about the way humanity seems intent on ignoring the growing climate crisis. Digger is a much more artistic and interesting film, whereas Don’t Look Up is more coherent and direct in its narrative. I respect Digger more, but I got more enjoyment from watching Don’t Look Up, and I think that film was more successful in landing its points. They’re also interesting to compare in terms of budget, as Don’t Look Up was made for about half of what Digger cost. I don’t tend to write too much about budgets here, and it feels wrong to me to strike any note of criticism about a movie studio giving a talented writer/director like Alejandro Iñárritu a large budget. I applaud that! At the same time, I can’t help feeling that $160 million is an awfully huge budget for what feels to me like an indie art film. 2014’s Birdman looked amazing and had big stars and was made for only around $17 million. I think people would be looking on Digger far more favorably had it been made at a scrappier, lower budget.
Before I wrap up, I want to again praise Tom Cruise for his performance. I’ve always thought Mr. Cruise was a great actor. I’ve enjoyed him in his action-hero phase, but I also really enjoyed his work as an actor in films like A Few Good Men, The Color of Money, The Outsiders, Born on the Fourth of July, and more. I also loved his previous performance under prosthetics, as the profane Les Grossman in Tropic Thunder (a character I thought about a lot while watching Digger!). It’d a pleasure getting to watch Mr. Cruise actually ACT again, creating a new, compelling character. Even under a lot of prosthetics, Mr. Cruise’s talent shines through, and I had a blast watching him inhabit this character. Digger is a wonderful creation and a very memorable character. (I also love Digger’s strange, mostly-dead cat Maggie, brought to life through what I think is mostly an animatronic. Maggie is so creepy and wonderful!!)
I also want to praise John Goodman, who is note-perfect as the useless President Compton. Mr. Goodman layers in all the exact right notes of selfishness, cluelessness, and arrogance the character needs. He’s a delight in every scene.
The whole ensemble really is great. Michael Stuhlbarg (A Serious Man, The Post, The Shape of Water) is very funny as the sycophantic vice-president, Eddie. Riz Ahmed (Rogue One, The Night Of) is fantastic as the scientist Dr. Ganesh, who seems to be the last man in the world with any integrity. Sandra Hüller (Project Hail Mary) is great as Emma, Digger’s half-sister who despises and needs her brother. Jesse Plemons (The Post, Judas and the Black Messiah, I’m Thinking of Ending Things, Killers of the Flower Moon) is perfectly creepy and weird as a mysterious dude who keeps hanging around Curtis’ dressing room. Emma D’Arcy (Truth Seekers, House of the Dragon) brings a lot of life & humor to her small role as Digger’s harried assistant Lina. Sophie Wilde is compelling as Sophie, the play’s director. I loved seeing Burn Gorman (Pacific Rim, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice) pop up as one of President Compton’s military advisors, and Robert John Burke had the perfect amount of gun-crazy gruffness as Fitzgerald, the Military Chief of Staff.
I’m sad that Digger has bombed in theaters, though I can’t say I’m terribly surprised. I’m glad I saw it, and I hope that the increasingly huge and heartless corporations that run movie studios somehow still find ways to continue giving money to passionate filmmakers.
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