For those who venture to watch it, Digger is both rewarding and punishing
If you were to spend 15 minutes online looking at reactions and critiques of Digger, you might end up more confused than you started. The discourse is … weird, mixed, and cagey. Which sort of mirrors the film! Tom Cruise and Alejandro González Iñárritu’s new film, which has flopped so tremendously that it’s since been removed from movie theaters around the country and the world, is an interesting ride. It’s also definitely not the train wreck many have described it as. It’s an uneven, rather ambitious, and fully self-absorbed stab at critiquing our times.
I initially wondered if Tom Cruise signed on to do this movie solely because Leo DiCaprio won his coveted Oscar for The Revenant, which was also directed by Iñárritu, about a decade back. However, as I got deeper into the movie and the performance, I started to believe that he just wanted to fucking cook. Oscar or no Oscar. There is one sequence in the middle of the film that features Cruise’s best ball since the 90s at least. It really is that fantastic of a performance, and he’s not just doing a Jerry Jones impersonation, either, which leads us into Spoiler Territory.
Spooky Spooky Spoilers! Beware!
One potential reason this movie isn’t doing too hot at the box office so far is that it doesn’t market the plot very effectively. There is a twist about 30 minutes in, where it is revealed that Tom Cruise isn’t actually Oil Tycoon Digger, but rather an actor playing Digger in a play about the events his character kicked off 20 years prior. Trippy. It truly can’t be overstated how unsettling it is when this is revealed. The movie takes such an odd turn on such a dime, but probably improves it in doing so. Had it been the simple story of Digger with no nuance, it probably wouldn’t work as well. Cruise, specifically, wouldn’t work as well.
Following this twist, we see several more flickering moments where the true setting is revealed, and Cruise goes into “actor playing an actor” mode instead of “I own this motherfucking continent” mode, which makes the performance much more layered and balanced. Cruise struggles with how much comedy should be involved in his performance, and how much it “makes light” of Diggers’ terrible deeds that have led society to a truly desolate place. We also get subplots involving the play’s director, a mysterious producer (whose identity conflicts with the politics of the movie, to say the least), and Cruise’s daughter, who we see is dealing with the real-world fallout of a post-Digger reality. Not everything is executed entirely smoothly, and the “play” aspect does not solve all of the film’s problems. However, it makes it a more interesting and thought-provoking watch, so much so that I found myself revisiting plot points in my mind days after my screening. ‘
Digger is not immune to AGI’s passionate romance with the thought that his ideas are the best, more interesting ideas around. This movie really thinks it is smart. Smarter than me? Sure. But apparently still not smart enough to make a profit.
