Digger Review: A Wonderful Tom Cruise Drops the Action to Dig at 2020s Political Fears in This Divisive Satire
Images courtesy of Warner Bros.
“Tom Cruise is always getting older, he knows he’ll never be that young again,” sang Jonathan Coulton in his 2006 song, “Tom Cruise Crazy.” The song, a comedic dig about his potential future, is hardly kind to the triple A-list star, further claiming that Cruise “knows someday he’ll have to play an old…grandpa.” Coulton was right to prophesy this, as in Digger Tom Cruise has finally taken on the old man role, not in the traditional sense; he’s not one hard of hearing, slow, or aching. No, in Digger Cruise’s old man role as the title character Digger Rockwell can only be described as an electric performance, a mix between his roles in Magnolia and Tropic Thunder.
In a post 2010s world, Cruise has become the poster boy for the all-American action hero. A tough S.O.B who gets the girl and beats the bad guy, a la Mission Impossible and Jack Reacher. The Digger character rejects this archetype, and while he is certainly all-American, he is no hero. Digger is in fact the cause of the ‘comedy of catastrophic proportions’ that is Digger, as it’s his Greenland based oil rig that causes an iceberg to break away and drift towards Europe, causing a tsunami that will result in a cataclysmic loss of life. It’s the eighteen trillion dollar price tag that this event has on the United States that’s the real pickle for Digger though, as the President, Compson (John Goodman), orders “Digger got us into this mess, he’s going to have to dig us out.”
Yes, the film is a political satire that plays on numerous different current affairs like the climate, the threats of nuclear war, and the rich businessmen who have swooned the heart of our politicians. But believe me, even by those descriptions, it is still somehow not what you think it is. The trailers and marketing are leading to a very false belief surrounding the film. This is not an example of studio interference, it’s clear that director Alejandro González Iñárritu very much wants the real Digger to be a secret, and you’ll get no such hint from me about it. But in a world in which it seems every bit of film’s marketing is attempting to give away any and all possible secrets behind it, I’m thankful that the creatives behind Digger chose to sell the film this way.
That being said, Digger’s ‘twist’ — I’m not even sure if that’s how I would go about describing it — will be divisive. It’s a real if you like it you’ll enjoy the film, if you don’t you won’t, scenario. It works for the story, and as a matter of fact it adds a huge emotional heart to it, but it also feels like a ploy to shelter the film from any criticism surrounding it, a safety bunker to hide below if the humour comes off as unfunny, or if the satirical over the top performances don’t quite stick the landing.
Yet Iñárritu’s film does feel finely crafted. It’s clear he had the beats in mind, and the whole film provides hints and callbacks to its real identity. Its production design is really incredible, wonderfully crafted sets from pair Dennis Gassner and Richard Johnson that make the filmmakers direction really shine, every angle of every hand-designed room used. This time, Iñárritu and frequent collaborator cinematographer Emmanuel Luzbeski have gone in a different direction with their visuals, their usual moving camera put to the side as much of Digger is static. And even though the film is certainly not ugly — its choices of colour that were highly criticised by some from its trailers fit into the desolate world of the film — it was a disappointing choice I felt considering their incredible work with the moving camera and its long takes on the likes of Birdman and The Revenant. I was then pleasantly surprised when after the film's first thirty minutes, the intentions behind the visual choice became very clear. The certain story that Digger is trying to tell gets a certain kick out of this new style, and I’m happy to say I appreciate the film's visual look to a high degree.
Despite all of this, it’s pretty easy to say that prosthetic heavy Cruise is the highlight. It’s just hard not to be charmed by his Digger Rockwell. One incredible scene, perhaps the best in the film, involves Digger giving a real “drill, baby, drill” speech that had me so entranced that I honestly started to forget about the evils of the oil industry. He’s so perfect for the role that I’m sure that it was written with him in mind; it's just hard to imagine anyone else doing it like him. It’s much the same way that Michael Keaton’s role in Iñárritu’s best picture winning Birdman felt like it was a meta text about him and his past role as Batman, Digger feels like a commentary on Cruise as a star and his ongoing quest to ensure cinema is kept alive.
Riz Ahmed too is fantastic as environmental expert and scientist, Ganesh. He’s the antithesis of Digger and all that he stands for, which means that the film makes time for the two to have great exchanges with one another. John Goodman is someone I have to praise because unlike a lot of recent satire films with a presidential role, Goodman is not trying to be a Donald Trump impersonator. He’s still funny, he’s still an evil old man, but he is not what I’ve become tired of when I see a presidential role. Jesse Plemons is also fantastic, in a role that is much more relaxed than the films others; nothing over the top from him. However, with the limited amount of screentime he has, to speak about his role in depth would ruin the film’s surprises. Just know that apart from Cruise’s Rockwell, he may have the best moment in the film.
With the spoof at the centre of Digger’s story, it’s very hard to watch or talk about the film without thinking about the world right now. It’s a very on the nose satire; Don’t Look Up, Triangle of Sadness and Mickey 17 all come to mind. Those films touch on pretty similar topics that Iñárritu does, and all four of them certainly lack any subtlety. But where this one differs is that it does not feel like a righteous piece of art made to inspire the masses. Digger feels like a parody of these films, it still has things to say about the world, but not as a call to action, not this is where the world is heading, help us stop it! Rather purely, this is the world. There are Digger Rockwell’s among us, the film says. They are stern, perhaps even scary men, but the lives they live are so absurd that they are in fact hilarious men. In all simplicity Digger’s thesis is much closer to that of Dr Strangelove than of these modern films: laugh at all of the absurdity that goes on behind those closed doors, because it’s the only thing we really can do.
Digger is in cinemas now. For tickets and more information, click here.
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