DIGGER Review

"When all else fails, you hit 'em with the truth. Ya know the hard truth. Just bang, bang, bang! Whoo! Whoo!"

Digger was touted as the first film in a while in which we witnessed Tom Cruise giving this dramatic performance. When the news came out that he'd be working with 4-time Academy Award-winning filmmaker, Alejandro González Iñárritu, more eyes were on this satirical black comedy. Going into this I was given fair warning that this would divide people, and boy has it!

I've been getting messages from people saying how much they either liked this or HATED this. I myself liked enough of it, to say I didn't hate watching this film. However, it's not in the same vein as Iñárritu's best work like Birdman or The Revenant.

The film follows Digger Rockwell (Tom Cruise), a wealthy oil tycoon, living in his mansion with a dying cat named Maggie. He discovers that his oil company has caused a potential world-ending disaster in Greenland. When he reports this to the President of the United States (John Goodman), Digger is asked to solve this problem and attempts to persuade the world that he's humanity's savior. With the help of his half-sister, Emma (Sandra Hüller), and scientist, Dr. Ganesh (Riz Ahmed), he'll do whatever it takes to save the world from complete annihilation.

Digger is Iñárritu's eighth film he's directed, and while I haven't seen all of them, I have seen enough to know I've grown attached to his movies to a certain degree. This latest film tackles ideas and themes that are weirdly similar to his Oscar-winning film, Birdman. For me to say how exactly, I would have to spoil the film for my readers. What I can say is that while that film had what I felt was an air-tight screenplay, mixing in the family drama and intriguing ideas and modern-day commentary within the story, Digger attempts to do that, but doesn't go the whole way.

It definitely has the blunt force trauma storytelling Iñárritu has within his films present here, but it's not quite able to commit the intriguing ideas it has without spoon feeding the audience. I could argue that Birdman works, because of the world the actors live in are in a pretentious setting and have to deal with each other's egos as well as their own. The climate change plot alone in Digger is very much in-your-face with how eerily similar it is to today's world, especially when the film has its President whose decisions are made without any real thought or planning. But it doesn't quite land how it wants to tackle it in a way that makes it a funny joke.

Every once in a while, there's a gag that worked for me, especially with how bizarre the world is. If nothing else, it wasn't like Don't Look Up where the obvious storytelling was there but none of the jokes landed. With Digger, I appreciated the commitment with its over-the-top tone and blocking Iñárritu would play around with; one scene involving doors being opened by various people that include one of Digger's assistants, Lena (Emma D'Arcy). But make no mistake: this isn't nearly on the level of Dr. Strangelove or One Battle After Another, where those films had incredibly clever writing/directing while doing a deep social commentary that felt intriguing.

Now, what did land with me were the technical achievements. Not only is the production design by Oscar-winner Dennis Gassner impeccable to behold, but the makeup work on Tom Cruise by Oscar-winner Kazu Hiro was incredible to watch. It's amazing that his team were able to turn someone that's still as handsome as Tom and make him look so old. I also appreciated the sound work that helped create the chaotic environment.

I also want to give Cosmo Sheldrake props for bringing in such a euphoric score to the whole film. At times, it worked in tangent with what the sound team brought to the table that complimented each other's work. The music itself at times reminded me of Jerskin Fendrix's work on Bugonia or Poor Things. When this score drops, I definitely want to listen along with the music.

As for the performances themselves, I felt the ensemble did an okay job; really the only big stand out of the supporting players was Riz Ahmed, who was actively trying to create a character that felt grounded for me. But the biggest name of them all is Tom Cruise, and he's pretty good in this. Not only is he committed to the bit, but it weirdly reminded me at times of Tom playing this role as if Johnny Depp were playing it; he's definitely acting for the crowd in the back of the theatre, which can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on who you ask, but I felt it worked enough. There's even an elaborate long take where Tom is persuading the court to be on his side, and it's insane that he was willing to do the whole monologue in one go.

There's even more that I could cover in my review that I'm leaving out, as it's hard to discuss without going into major spoilers. As is, Digger is a fascinating film that could've worked better if they had more time to generate these ideas in a more sophisticated manner. There's a lot of great technical merits to appreciate that I certainly enjoyed, including the score by Cosmo Sheldrake. But it unfortunately doesn't become this terrific film it thinks it is.

As of now, it's projected to be a box-office dud and is likely to be Warner Brothers' final film before the studio gets officially acquired by Paramount Skydance. It's a shame that this'll be the end of a once great studio, as it had some terrific films and even provided us with a few big swings. But if this is how the studio ends, then it'll be a sad note to go out on. I guess the only thing left to say is f--k capitalism!

🍿 SCORE = 67/100