With: Tom Cruise, Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Sandra Hüller, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jesse Plemons, Robert John Burke, Emma D'Arcy, Burn Gorman, Sophie Wilde, Pip Torrens, Mercedes Hernández, Danny Kirrane, Corey Johnson
Written by: Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Alexander Dinelaris, Nicolás Giacobone, Sabina Berman, based on a story by Sabina Berman, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Jez Butterworth
Alejandro G. Iñárritu's Digger is cosmically depressing, but it's also sometimes riotously funny. It's high-pitched movie in which characters mostly shout at one another, although, eventually, it becomes apparent that this can be justified. Shot by cinematographer extraordinaire Emmanuel Lubezki, it's oftentimes beautiful or at least striking, but it's also grotesque. Even after several days I can't decide whether I liked it or not, although I did come to the conclusion that I'm glad I saw it, even if I never want to see it again. It's the cinematic equivalent of getting slapped in the face from several angles; it's bracing and it wears you out, but at least it does something, whereas so many movies do nothing.
Tom Cruise stars in his most performance, doing the most stuff at the highest pitch with the biggest fervor. It even makes his classic comedy turn as agent Les Grossman in Tropic Thunder look small and subtle by comparison. Digger may or may not be his best work, but it's his biggest. He's Digger Rockwell, a wealthy oilman with a sick cat and a problem. One of his oil refineries, in Greenland, has developed an alarming crack in the ice. Despite warnings, Digger won't shut it down. Methane gas causes a massive explosion, which causes a massive iceberg to break off and begin heading for Europe and mass destruction.
Digger and his pal, U.S. President Compson (John Goodman) try to figure out what to do, whether it's finding a way to stop the iceberg, or figuring out ways to spin it so that it doesn't look like their fault. Scientist Ganesh (Riz Ahmed) is on hand with alarming data, Digger's sister Emma (Sandra Hüller) tries to keep a handle on her own green energy company, and the Vice President (Michael Stuhlbarg) is meek and ineffectual. Jesse Plemons plays a guy named Kenny.
It wouldn't do to explain any more, but there are Big Speeches and Messages and Satire, and it all boils down to a damning takeaway not only about the death of the American Dream, but about our own complicity in that death (not just Them, but each and every one of us). Unfortunately, it seems like people will be talking less about Climate Change and other earthly disasters than they will about who will be nominated and/or win Oscars. Iñárritu is nothing if not a maker of Oscar bait. Each of his previous seven films was nominated for at least one Oscar, and three of the seven won Oscars.
Cruise has three nominations so far, but none in the 21st century; there are also several films for which he should have been nominated and would have been if he wasn't considered a movie star first and an actor second. But if John Goodman gets his first nomination in his long, amazing career, it will all have been worth it. I'll keep that little warm fuzzy close to my heart as I stew in existential dread for the next long while.
