My rating of this movie was on a rollercoaster. Up and down and all around.

Digger is directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu (who brought us the weird Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance, and the chilling The Revenant) and stars Tom Cruise, John Goodman, Sandra Hüller, and Riz Ahmed. The film has already split opinions upon release, and I can see this review taking some time to write.
The trailer plays things close to its chest… and this review will dive into what it doesn’t tell you. If you consider these spoilers, then consider this a warning. My general thoughts on the film are thus: I liked it. It was a bit of a rollercoaster of highs and lows, but it evens out in the end. Cruise might be the weak link here.

Anyway, we will get into it now.

The film follows Digger Rockwell, the owner of a massive oil field that supplies America. He lives in resplendent luxury. He only wants to hear good news, and cares only for his extremely old pet cat. But when his oil platforms cause a massive ice shelf to break off from Greenland, he is solely responsible. A massive sheet of ice is threatening to plough into Europe.

In watching the trailer (and even reading my very short and opaque synopsis) you can maybe guess this film has political leanings. And how. Digger is absolutely bursting with close-to-the-bone politics that address extremely current affairs. Wrapped up in a fictional, satirical ribbon.

The character of Digger (Cruise) is your de facto big American corporation CEO. A man who sees himself as a servant of the people, giving them what they need, while becoming extremely powerful himself. The linchpin of the world’s systemic problems, immovable by necessity and tradition, destructive in his persistence. The American government are clownish old men who do not listen to and resent experts. Solutions need to be quick, problems buried, and/or solved with military action.
Naturally, we see the situation become compounded and get progressively worse and worse. The experts (primarily represented by Riz Ahmed as Ganesh) can only aggressively repeat the same facts, only to be cast aside. Or worse, used as a means to control the Government’s narrative.

Yes, Digger is a politically-charged movie. But it is satire. It plays out in a mix of Wes Anderson’s and The Coen Brothers’ style. Strangely staged in appearance. Everything is off. Not quite real. But we know that the film is riffing off of current affairs. We know it is satire – and good satire at that. It is entertaining and rewarding and fun. Performances are wild-eyed and preposterous (yet upsettingly genuine, you… might not find it funny) everything is firing on all cylinders.

Then the floor falls away.

To give away what the trailer does not express: Digger’s world is not real. He is a stage-play character performed by Curtis Markson (still Cruise) and the entire production is a re-enactment. Curtis, meanwhile, is arguing with his wife over a video call. Their daughter’s whereabouts are unknown, she may or may not have gotten on a plane. This is distracting Curtis from his rehersal, with the play due to begin in mere hours.

Now to get into it.

Often satire is lost on audiences. Don’t take it from me, look at the original release of Starship Troopers for a gold standard example. But Digger is a perplexing beast for how it uses its framing device. Instead of just having the play be the film itself, we get the framing of a theatre director explaining that this is satire. It is surreal lamp-shading that will immediately annoy some audiences. Not to mention the possibility that Cruise (who is also a producer here) is recontextualized as a good guy. He’s an actor, he isn’t actually Digger Rockwell. This could be seen as eating the cake and having it too.

But… one remembers the times we live in now. We’ve seen regular breaches of free speech in “the land of the free”. Comedians and satirists have been taken off-air for saying things the Government doesn’t like. In Digger, John Goodman’s President Compson is a skewed example of a corrupt American President. He surrounds himself with sycophants who are too scared to tell him no. He has a cult-like religious rhetoric.
The film’s play (called Fossil Fools) is taking place after a disaster has taken place. The script’s lamp-shading may be heavy-handed, but the message is genuine and clear. It being a satirical play, taking place after a disaster, only emphasises the immortality of art and the necessity of comedy.

This overarching theme really pulled the film back into my favour. For all its heavy-handed text, it is both enjoyable and compelling.

But this review isn’t over.
Tom Cruise… doesn’t work for me. I appreciate him doing something different, and this negativity isn’t entirely because he told his make-up team to work faster. But I don’t see the need for Cruise in particular. Rushed make-up or no, it is very difficult to not see him. In fact, there are line reads where he just drops the accent. Is that because he’s an actor playing a method actor playing a role?? I don’t know, but it stands out.

John Goodman is amazing here. Easily stealing the show from Cruise during their scenes together. I greatly enjoyed the unreal reality that the play was presenting. Coen Brothers and Wes Anderson hallmarks of strangely symmetrical, or sterile, stark set design. Unhinged and boisterous performances. Sandra Hüller (Project Hail Mary) as well, playing the actor playing Digger’s wife. Like all women in this play’s reality, is shoved aside and painfully ignored by their male counterparts despite largely talking sense.

It is stupenduously political. So the fact it is dividing audiences isn’t surprising. Either angered by the representation, or confounded by its framing device and satire. I am generally in the camp that Digger is very good. It deserves a second viewing, to pull apart more subtext and appreciate it fully as the sum of its parts. Because on first blush, it is a dizzying whirlwind of intentions.

Personally, the final scenes make it worthwhile: a story about the importance of art, truth, and satire. These will never die, even after everything else has.

Additional Marshmallows: It isn’t lost on me what this film represents, and what its studio has very recently become. Rest in Peace, Warner Brothers.