By George & Josh Bate
Over the past 45 years, Tom Cruise has remained one of the most prominent and beloved movie stars. Cruise demonstrated his dramatic range and depth in the likes of Rain Man and Born on the Fourth of July in the 1980s and Jerry Maguire and Magnolia in the 1990s, but, in the past 15 years, has delivered largely indistinguishable turns as Ethan Hunt, Jack Reacher, and a collective of other, extraordinarily similar characters. Cruise digs himself out of this state of relative monotony in Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Digger, an ambitious and breathtaking satire on American idiocy and overconfidence backed by Cruise’s best ever performance.
Digger follows Tom Cruise as Digger Rockwell, the world’s wealthiest man and titan of industry with prominent oil investments around the world. When his company accidentally causes an ecological disaster that threatens to displace and kill millions of people, Digger scrambles to find a way out of a seemingly impossible dilemma as he faces pressure from U.S. President Compson (John Goodman), his sister Emma (Sandra Hüller), and his company’s top scientist Ganesh (Riz Ahmed).
It is impossible to separate Digger from either titular character or its leading man. As much as the film is distinctly a product of the mind and vision of Alejandro G. Iñárritu, it is equally inextricable from Tom Cruise’s mesmerizing turn as a wealthy oil tycoon forced to reckon with a global crisis brought about by his own ignorance. Digger Rockwell has the eccentricity of a Bond villain, the arrogance and ignorance of a stereotypical American, and the undeniable charisma of quintessential Tom Cruise, collectively rendering him a character far more fascinating and complex than one may initially expect.
The early parts of Digger showcase an almost unrecognizable Cruise uttering lines in a strong Texan accent and wearing all manner of prosthetics to look older and heavier than he really is. Initially, Cruise’s performance appears most comparable to his turn in Tropic Thunder as Les Grossman, another larger-than-life figure actualized by heavy prosthetics and a decidedly unhinged personality. It all makes for enthralling viewing as Cruise chews up the scenery and appears to be having more fun than he has on screen in years, finally playing a character with the richness of disposition fitting his recently untapped acting abilities.
Midway through the film, Cruise delivers a monologue that may just be the best scene of any movie this year. Written with razor sharp wit and unflinching commentary, the monologue sees Cruise show the world how he can captivate audiences and command the screen like no other. It’s the kind of scene that will go down as among the finest work of Cruise’s entire career and one that adds substantial layers to an already thematically ambitious film.
From the get-go, Iñárritu and Cruise do not shy away from their hilarious and biting satire of the United States. Cruise’s Digger, at least initially, could be a stand-in for any number of conservative, money-hungry politicians or billionaires who disregard the well-being of others to further line their pockets. However, as the story unfolds, both Digger as a character and Digger as a satire grow considerably in complexity.
Iñárritu deserves immense plaudits for just how far he goes with his comedy-laden critiques of America, a stance made all the more admirable considering Digger is not some micro-budget indie flick, but instead a big-budget studio film. While some may find the film’s satire a tad heavy-handed, its sense of humor overwhelmingly works when one considers it within the context Iñárritu is going for. Much like Digger himself, the film is eccentric, expansive, and grandiose, and, as such, gives itself permission to be silly, have comically idiotic characters, and lean into humor any chance it can. The result is easily one of the year’s funniest films, by quite some margin.
Contributing significantly to the humor and delivering the most outstanding of the supporting performances is Riz Ahmed. It takes a lot to go toe-to-toe with Cruise on any given day, never mind when he is going as gargantuan with his performance as he is here, but Ahmed does so seamlessly. A scene in the film involving Ahmed and Cruise exchanging words on a plane demonstrates just how committed and immersive of a performer Ahmed is. If his work in the likes of Sound of Metal and Four Lions didn’t make it abundantly clear already, Ahmed more than deserves his status as one of the most talented actors working today.
Ahead of its release, much has been made of a big twist in the film, a key element not revealed by any promotional material. And, indeed, Digger certainly lives up to the hype in this regard. Iñárritu pulls the rug out from under his audience as his film enters its second act with a turn few, even the most seasoned of moviegoers, could see coming. While admirable in its ambition, however, the twist threatens to undermine everything Digger has worked so hard to achieve to this point.
Without delving into spoilers, the mid-film shift deprives the story of stakes and momentum, the latter proving particularly salient given the narrative’s sudden adoption of a bifurcated structure. For much of the runtime, this twist feels like a head-scratcher – the kind of creative decision from a clever filmmaker and clever screenwriters being a bit too clever for their own good.
All this changes, however, in a final stretch in which Iñárritu beautifully ties all the loose threads of his film together. The wait for this reward does not detract from how significantly it takes the wind out of the preceding narrative, but the finale ultimately triumphs in inventively finding both tragedy and morbid humor in the direction our world is heading in. In retrospect, the film simply would not be as novel or effective without this twist. At first, one may think this is Iñárritu doing a modern day Dr. Strangelove or perhaps doing his take on Don’t Look Up, yet the film eventually reveals itself as something commendably different.
VERDICT: 8.5/10
Digger finds Alejandro G. Iñárritu and Tom Cruise team up to mastermind a breathtaking piece of cinema. Over the past 45 years, Tom Cruise has remained one of the most prominent and beloved movie stars, but he delivers the best performance of his entire career in Digger. Iñárritu’s ambitious and scathing satire on American idiocy and overconfidence is eccentric, expansive, and grandiose, with Cruise delivering an almost unrecognizable performance with the eccentricity of a Bond villain, the arrogance and ignorance of a stereotypical American, and the undeniable charisma of quintessential Tom Cruise. Cruise’s mid-film monologue may just be the best scene of any movie this year, showcasing how he can captivate audiences and command the screen like no other, while Riz Ahmed delivers an outstanding supporting performance and more than deserves his status as one of the most talented actors working today. Although the film’s big twist threatens to undermine its stakes and momentum for much of its runtime, and at times feels like a clever filmmaker being a bit too clever for his own good, Iñárritu beautifully ties all the loose threads together in a final stretch that finds both tragedy and morbid humor in the direction our world is heading in, ultimately revealing Digger as something considerably more layered and novel than one might expect. Easily the year’s funniest movie to date, by quite some margin, and bolstering a career-best performance from Tom Cruise, Digger may be about a man forced to reckon with a catastrophe he caused, but the film itself is far from catastrophic.