Tom Cruise is an actor that is not without his baggage. Whether it’s from his personal life, his choice of religion, or just that one time that he jumped up and down on Oprah’s couch there are things that the public find dissatisfying about the man. But he also continues to find success with his Mission: Impossible franchise or his return to the high flying excitement within the highest grossing at the domestic box office of 2022, Top Gun: Maverick, audiences have continued to show up regardless of the controversary surrounding Hollywood’s last movie star.
And now we see Tom Cruise doing something we haven’t seen in a long time, taking a real risk by performing in what appears to be an art awards film. This is not him simply risking his physical body, in Director Innaritu’s Digger he puts his star power on the line playing someone that actually resembles the 64 year old’s actual age. This is done through many layers of prosthetics and Cruise adopts a heavy Texas accent to lean all the way into his role as Digger Rockwell, oil baron of the modern age.
Digger, at its heart, is a farce about the powers that be destroying our habitat and killing millions by drilling for oil all over the world, as well as the greed that drives them. Not just their own greed, but the greed of the entire world. “You wanted to me to keep drilling!” Screams Digger Rockwell (Tom Cruise) after his own Director of Environmental Safety (Riz Ahmed) tells the nations of the world that the man at fault is Digger Rockwell himself. Throughout the film Digger finds himself in board meetings with a combination of characateurs, from the cancer riddled President Compson (John Goodman) to his cantankerous half sister Emma (Sandra Hueller) the cast of characters and the impending doom of the world work in tandem to hearken back to Dr. Strangelove.
There is one other thing at play in Innaritu’s film that the marketing did not make obvious. Those incredibly averse to spoilers may want to dip out here. The performances are so overblown it adds to the comedy of the film Digger, but it’s not at all how people talk, or really how people act in movies. It turns out that within the film Digger, there is a play unfolding called Fossil Fools, wherein the lead actor Curtis Markson (Tom Cruise once again) plays Digger Rockwell. The movie unspools like this for awhile, wherein we see the actors break and discuss their scenes, get into fights with the director, and talk about their lives outside the stage, if only rarely.
One thing that is revealed is that Curtis Markson’s daughter is missing after a storm hit while her plane was taking off in Jamaica. We only see hints of the tragedy left in wake by the man Digger Rockwell as opposed to the character that Markson is portraying. The Earth has clearly been changed for the worse, but inside the playhouse in which this troupe is preparing, there are only sparse hints. The play, and Markson’s performance do seem to humanize Digger, but also not exonerate him of his crimes that broke the world. Shattered it into a grey theater, that shakes from the anger of the Earth and the rage of the wind outside.
Digger is attempting to do two things; highlight the oncoming climate disaster, as well as note that while art taking the billionaire class to task, while cathartic, is by no means a real solve to the problems we face. It may make us feel better, but at the end of the day they will be more than happy to fund portrayals of themselves as ghouls if it lines their pockets and allows them to keep living their lives. Does it do this in a way that feels like the movie is constantly jabbing you in the eye? Absolutely. It is a challenging watch, from the score, to the performances, to the reveal of its vast subject matter. It makes sense that so many people found it obejectionable, but it is Innaritu’s most interesting film in years, and while its just as self important as many of his others, it’s construction is more interesting than almost any film that’s come out this year.
3.5/5
