There are movies that are difficult to review because there isn’t much to say about them, and then there’s Digger, which is difficult to review because almost everything I want to say about it would be a spoiler. So let’s start with what I can tell you.
Tom Cruise plays Digger Rockwell, a fabulously wealthy Texas oil magnate whose business interests are about to collide with a rather enormous environmental disaster. A catastrophic event in the Arctic threatens to unleash consequences on a global scale, leaving Digger, scientists and the US government scrambling to work out what, exactly, they’re going to do about it.
From there, director Alejandro González Iñárritu takes a very sharp turn away from the sort of climate disaster movie you might be expecting.
This is a huge swing. An enormous, expensive, deeply theatrical swing. Iñárritu has made something that feels part black comedy, part farce, part satire and part fever dream, with the sort of confidence that suggests nobody involved ever stopped to ask whether perhaps this was getting a little bit too weird. I actually appreciated that.
Digger has definite Dr. Strangelove DNA running through it, particularly in its darkly comic treatment of catastrophe and the absurdity of powerful people attempting to control something much bigger than themselves. There’s also a theatricality to the whole thing that makes it feel very different from the usual Tom Cruise vehicle.
Emmanuel Lubezki’s cinematography gives the film a grand, slightly surreal scale, while Iñárritu fills the frame with elaborate sets and deliberately off-kilter-looking environments. There is clearly an enormous amount of craft behind what you’re watching.
One sequence set in an amphitheatre particularly stopped me in my tracks. The technical achievement of pulling off a shot like that is impressive enough, but watching the actors sustain the performance through it makes it equally impressive. You can see exactly how much work has gone into making Digger look and feel like this.
And this is where I find myself in the slightly awkward position of saying: I really appreciated what Iñárritu was doing. I just didn’t enjoy it very much.
I can admire the ambition. I can appreciate the performances. I can marvel at the filmmaking. I can understand why people are going to have A LOT to say about what the movie is trying to do. But somewhere between appreciating the enormous swing and actually sitting through it, I realised I was having a much better time thinking about Digger than watching Digger.
The problem is that Digger is so determined to be a lot. It’s loud, theatrical, deliberately strange and increasingly self-aware. For some people, that will be precisely the appeal. For me, much of it left me feeling fairly lukewarm.
Then something happens and suddenly I was interested. It’s one of those moments where you can feel a filmmaker making a very deliberate choice, and Iñárritu deserves credit for having the nerve to make it. I was genuinely excited to see where he was taking the film from there. The problem was that the movie didn’t quite live up to the possibilities that decision opened up. Or it did, but too late. Or it didn’t at all. See what I mean?
And that is where reviewing Digger becomes incredibly frustrating, because the thing I most want to talk about is the thing I absolutely cannot tell you.
I could explain exactly what happens. I could tell you why I found the decision so fascinating. I could tell you why it made me sit up and pay attention after feeling fairly unmoved by what had come before. I could even tell you what I think the film is doing with the choice.
But then I’d be the person who spoiled Digger for you, so I won’t.
What I will say is that this is a film worth seeing with as little information as possible. Go in knowing Tom Cruise plays a larger-than-life oil tycoon, an environmental catastrophe is looming and Alejandro González Iñárritu has made something wildly more ambitious and strange than the trailer might suggest. Then make up your own mind.
Because whatever else you think of Digger, you can’t accuse it of playing it safe.
In her spare time, she likes long walks down the makeup aisle and performing in Brisbane theatre. You can follow her adventures on Instagram and TikTok @thebeautypalate.
