Can “Digger” dig itself out of the hole the movie is in after receiving mixed reviews?
Director Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s satirical black comedy, starring Tom Cruise as the title character, doesn’t hit theaters until October 2, but it’s already sparking divisive conversations. Reviews for the film began appearing on September 29 and were divided, with “Digger” receiving a 52% review score on Rotten Tomatoes as of October 1.
Some praise Cruise, who wears heavy prosthetics and has a gray hairline, for his “underhanded acting.” Others call it a “sluggish, self-satisfied film”.
“Digger” centers around a wealthy oil tycoon named Digger, whose company drills off the coast of Greenland. One day, Digger receives a call from a scientist in the field informing him that drilling has caused a 5-foot crack in the ice, potentially leading to an environmental disaster.
“The Digger here got us into this mess, and the Digger will dig us out again!” says John Goodman, who plays the President of the United States. The film also stars Riz Ahmed, Sandra Hüller, Jesse Plemons and Emma D’Arcy.
The film’s social media pages are trending toward polarizing reactions. The “Digger” Instagram page has released a new ad featuring various quotes from critics. The text on the clip reads: “Same movie, different facts.”
The caption “Decide for yourself” encouraged fans.
While we wait to see how fans react, here’s a spoiler-free look at what critics are saying about “Digger.”
Hollywood Reporter
The first line of David Rooney’s “Digger” review made it clear that he wasn’t a fan of Iñárritu’s or Cruise’s choices in the film.
“In the end, it’s a climate crisis satire so self-indulgent and over-the-top that it makes Adam McKay’s ‘Don’t Look Up’ seem almost innocuous. ‘Digger’ is basically what happens when you bring two huge egos together and no one is holding the reins to keep their most self-indulgent impulses in check,” he wrote in his review for The Hollywood Reporter.
“Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s wannabe Dr. Strangelove is a grim disaster scenario, directed by the extraordinarily obnoxious Tom Cruise, who spends hours in the makeup chair every day for his age, built around the blind spot that any attempt to stop global warming at such a late stage is pure political theater.”
He said the film clearly aimed to provide humorous moments but failed to hit the punchline.
“(Iñárritu’s) eighth feature is so meta that you watch him disappear up his own ass with excruciating exhaustion, and then realize in horror that he has another eardrum-shattering hour to endure,” he added, without pulling any punches.
He later compared the film to recent panned films such as “Babylon,” “Amsterdam” and “Megalopolis.”
One of his praises was Ahmed’s performance as scientist Ganesh. He also noted the film’s parliament scene.
Diversity
Variety’s Owen Gleiberman compared Cruise’s transformation in “Digger” to his character in “Tropic Thunder.”
“The performance is largely on par with what Cruise did in his heavy-suited cameo as sleazy studio executive Les Grossman in ‘Tropic Thunder.’ At one point Cruise wanted to make a Les Grossman movie, and in a sense ‘Digger’ is that movie; it’s a chance for him to let it rip for two hours, delivering a stylized hambone performance that’s essentially a ‘Saturday Night Live’ caricature, executed with the exactitude of the Method alone,” he wrote.
Like other critics, he referenced Stanley Kubrick’s “Dr. Strangelove.”
“‘Digger’ wants to be the ‘Dr. Strangelove’ of climate change, with its countdown to Armageddon scenario. It also wants to be the ‘Net’ of climate change and radically up the ante on Adam McKay’s finger-pointing climate change satire ‘Don’t Look Up,'” Gleiberman said. “Did I mention that the movie is about climate change? I take this issue seriously, but at this point, a movie like ‘Digger’ makes the viewer feel guilty.”
He also had a problem with humor, or lack thereof.
“But here’s the real problem: ‘Digger’ isn’t funny. It’s seemingly tense, adventurous and freewheeling, unorthodoxly weird. And it’s feels It’s like a comedy, fueled by the brutal exaggeration of a bad Coen brothers movie. But ‘Dr. Strangelove, centered around the genius of Peter Sellers, was extremely funny. “‘Digger’ borrows the doomsday architecture of ‘Strangelove’ but leaves out the guile and replaces it with an over-the-top, dazzling spectacle,” he said.
Vulture
On Rotten Tomatoes, Bilge Ebiri’s review for Vulture is labeled new, but her writing is more mixed.
He praised Cruise’s commitment to the role, writing: “A caricature of a face covered in prosthetic wrinkles and thinning strands of floppy hair is one thing, but it’s the physicality that’s truly impressive, as if he’s still doing one of those ‘Mission: Impossible’ stunts. Translating his inner composure into breathless forward movements, ‘Digger’ moves with a hunched, waddling determination – part George W. Bush, part Yosemite Sam, we can’t take our eyes off him, but we can’t help but think it’s Tom Cruise.” We never forget that he played a role.
But he said other aspects, such as the sets and sound design, made the film seem “designed to degrade”.
“It’s like being trapped inside a tuba for two hours – and I don’t just mean Cosmo Sheldrake’s overly insistent music. Everything is an underline, every line is a shout, every look is a grimace. It’s all phlegm, no breath,” Ebiri explained.
Roger Ebert
Robert Daniels gave “Digger” two out of four stars for his Roger Ebert review.
He said the film comes across as a mix of Iñárritu’s “Birdman” and “Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truth.”
“‘Digger’ combines both dazzling films, and it’s excruciatingly painful that this stagnant, self-satisfied movie doesn’t work,” Daniels wrote. “’Digger’ never quite sticks to its high concept.”
He felt that the film lacked substance.
BBC
The BBC’s Nicholas Barber had a much more positive view. He gave “Digger” four out of five stars while applauding Cruise’s decision to take on this risky role.
“‘Digger’ is not only the weirdest movie Cruise has ever made, it’s also the weirdest movie almost anyone has made,” he said. “Most people won’t go to see it — and some people who do will be left in the lurch. But that doesn’t mean ‘Digger’ fails. It’s just a weird, boring, conceptually challenging eco-satire, so it’s unlikely to be confused with ‘Mission: Impossible.'”
He teased that “Digger” contained some surprising developments.
“Considered purely a satire, ‘Digger’ resonates powerfully. But it’s more than that. There are two high-concept twists in the movie that raise new questions about everything you’ve seen so far,” Barber said.
He sums up his overall feelings about “Digger” in one sentence: “Personally, I loved it.”
He continues, “Some of the excesses are a little too extreme, and most viewers will wish it were shorter. After about 90 minutes, you grow tired of the close-ups of Goodman screaming as snake-sized veins protrude from his forehead. But as Cruise climbs all over the set and delivers thunderous lectures about the oil industry, I couldn’t help but grin at the sheer scale of his performance, his belief in the script’s grim environmental message, and Iñárritu’s antics.”
USA Today
Brian Truitt was also intrigued by Cruise signing on to this film at this point in his career.
“Wearing facial prosthetics, a fake beer belly and a Texas-sized twang, Cruise pushes himself to his limits and reminds us that this man can still deliver a masterclass in acting whenever he wants,” he said in his review for USA Today. “Surrounded by a terrific supporting cast, Cruise is the best part of Iñárritu’s latest effort, a socially conscious cautionary tale that doesn’t quite deliver on all of his grand ambitions.”
He says the initial change in “Digger” “changes the entire perspective of the film and also deepens its themes. It’s jarring when it happens, but it mostly works, and it dispels the provocative thoughts that will be pondered as the credits roll.”
Associated Press
Jake Coyle said in his review that although “Digger” wasn’t humorous, the satire worked.
“The biggest downside of ‘Digger’ is that it’s not very funny from a satire standpoint. Cruise is no Peter Sellers and Iñárritu is no Stanley Kubrick. Their strenuous efforts to achieve a similar black comedy may fail,” he said in his review for the Associated Press.
However, he appreciated how timely the film was and how it stood out among current movie releases.
“But ‘Digger’ is sharper on the other side of tragicomedy. A fiery provocation aimed at politicians and audiences alike, ‘Digger’ is by all accounts an extraordinary major studio release – as urgent as ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ but much more operatic. For better or worse, it’s a momentary major release and one unlikely to reoccur anytime soon,” Coyle continues.
Los Angeles Times
Amy Nicholson wrote at the beginning of her review for the Los Angeles Times that “Digger” showed Cruise daring to step outside his comfort zone for the first time in years.
“After a decade of playing it safe with “Mission: Impossible” and “Top Gun” sequels, this is what it looks like when Hollywood’s last classic movie star finally sticks his neck out,” he said.
Nicholson wasn’t entirely sold on the movie, but he’s happy it got made.
He explained, “There’s no emotion in it, just our own cold, cruel fears reflected back at us like a scene where Cruise stands defiantly in front of a mirror surrounded by horns. It’s not about solutions, but inertia and renunciation, and while I don’t entirely love this weird comedy, I’m stunned by its lurching into existence.”