Digger: Movie Review

Cast: Tom Cruise, John Goodman, Sandra Huller, Riz Ahmed
Director:Alejandro G. Iñárritu

It's hard to discuss Digger, a satire and meta commentary on the world we currently live in without revealing the big twist that comes some 30 minutes into the film.

Suffice to say this review will not do that.

It's an audacious move that upends what you've seen as the messy, sprawling film unfurls in front of you. Cruise, donning latex, a paunch and a thinning hairline, is Digger Rockwell, the owner of an oil company and eccentric billionaire who wears cowboy boots with pyjamas and nurses his clearly dying cat Maggie with the passion of someone who won't face the negatives in life.

When Digger's told the drilling he's doing in Alaska has caused the ice shelf to rupture from the coastline and is on a collision course with Europe, he races, along with the US President (Goodman) and his chief health and science safety officer (Ahmed, one of the film's bright points) to try and save the world.

As mentioned, Digger has a sprawling feel that meshes with its Dr Strangelove aspirations and its curiously odd edges.

There's a dark heart at play here, in a tale that mocks and exposes woke mentalities, along with the stale, male and pale world that makes up so much of it.

And while you could accuse parts of the film's narrative feeling shallow and only interested in highlighting concerns, there's a theme that emerges early on which the movie clings to and expands on.

Central to all of this is Cruise, channelling Midwestern drawl and billionaire bluster with gusto. Obnoxious, vulgar and arrogant, Digger is - like the film itself- a polarizing character that you may struggle to get to grips with. Certain revelations may adjust how you feel though - in a sign that Iñárritu and his actor have tried to make something deeper.

But Cruise makes him extremely compelling and intense in scenes where he's required to do so. One such moment sees his Digger address the United Nations as the disaster nears, and he exposes both the hypocrisy of the oil loving masses and the inadequacies that leaders have failed to address in tackling warning signs and finding alternatives.

Once Digger finds its groove, it settles into something that's unlike cinema has seem this year and it's no surprise the marketing has struggled to nail down exactly what this film is without destroying Iñárritu's vision for it.

What Iñárritu wants to say is partly up for discussion, but in some ways, there are parts of this which are a clarion call for action and a terrifying admission that ignorance continues to grow despite what art has to say about it. The post-release discussion should be fascinating. (And there needs to be recognition for the soundscape that's been created within - every single noise is amplified, affected and augmented in the soundtrack, an inescapable touch of visionary flair throughout.)

You won't see another movie like Digger this year and while it's nowhere near a lock for any kind of awards glory, it's a fascinating piece of occasionally experimental cinema whose last moments ring horrifically true to real world parallels and serve as a warning that we keep ignoring.