Tom Cruise plays a billionaire who causes a disaster and then refuses to fix it, and the movie spends its runtime trying to make that refusal funny. That’s the pitch for Digger, the new film from Alejandro González Iñárritu, and Decider‘s review argues that the joke works — even though it ends up cutting Tom Cruise back down to size.
The film follows Digger Rockwell, a rich oil baron played by Cruise, who unleashes a crack in the ice shelf that triggers a series of disasters. Instead of rushing to save the day, Rockwell sits tight and tries to shape public opinion, even as the president and his administration grow increasingly worried about him. John Goodman plays the president, with Riz Ahmed and Michael Stuhlbarg rounding out a cast of yes-men who mostly serve to highlight how badly Rockwell has messed things up.
The Logline That Doesn’t Land
The official summary for Digger promises a frantic mission to prove that Rockwell is humanity’s savior before the disaster he caused destroys everything. The review says the movie never really delivers on that promise. Rockwell doesn’t go on a frantic mission. He doesn’t try to save humanity. He just waits for the chaos to settle and hopes he comes out looking smart.
That’s the point, according to the review. The film is a dark comedy about powerful men who refuse to do the right thing for most of their lives, and then decide there’s no need to start once they’ve reaped for the rest of the world. It’s a satire of Cruise’s own action-hero brand, turning the “savior” role on its head by making the hero a villain who won’t lift a finger.
The Oscar Bid That May Not Work
Iñárritu has lured Cruise into his first non-thriller role in years, and the review reads the pairing as a bid for an Oscar nomination. The director has a history of winning with his actors: Leonardo DiCaprio won his Academy Award for Iñárritu’s The Revenant, and Michael Keaton scored his first-ever nomination for Iñárritu’s Birdman. Whether it works for Cruise remains open, though the review admits it’s hard to say without spoiling a major turn in the film.
The Performance That Shrinks the Star
Cruise delivers a big, bold performance in Digger, but the movie keeps pushing him further away from the audience. Iñárritu uses low-angle and fish-eyed shots to keep the characters at a distorted distance, and then adds more layers to push the action even further away. The effect is a little intimate, but it feels thin compared to the scope of the showboating.
The review notes that Cruise grabs the spotlight to rant and rave in many of the splashiest scenes, yet the overall effect is to make one of the world’s most singular movie stars part of an ensemble again. Unlike in Magnolia — his last acting nomination, a quarter-century ago — where a different form of showboating collapsed into devastating emotion, Digger keeps the satire at arm’s length.
The Screen That Refuses to Play Along
Iñárritu shot the movie in VistaVision, a taller format previously used on One Battle After Another. That means the image fills an extra-tall IMAX screen, although there aren’t many theaters left that can show it that way. The review notes that the movie is a theatrical experience that likely won’t translate well to home viewing.
Cruise is a big-screen fixture, and the review argues that Digger manages to elicit a big, bold performance from him, project it on a big screen, and still somehow cut him down to size. The film’s satire of its own premise — a wealthy man who refuses to fix his own disaster — ends up being more effective than any attempt to elevate Cruise’s status could have been.
A Worthy Subject, Served Flat-Footedly
The review acknowledges that the subject matter — environmental devastation — is worthy. But it argues that the satire feels weak, comparing it unfavorably to Adam McKay’s doomsday comedy Don’t Look Up. The laughs are scattered to the apocalyptic winds, and the film seems aghast at how little satire can move the needle.
What We Make of It
Digger is a strange beast. It takes Cruise’s action-star image and strips it of its heroic purpose, leaving a man who causes destruction and then sits back to watch it unfold. The satire is sharp, but the execution is uneven. The movie is worth seeing on a big screen, partly because the scale of the disaster demands it — but also because the film itself insists on demanding attention even as it undermines the star it’s built around.
The review’s verdict is amusement. The movie satirizes the pitch-black environmental devastation we’ve been unleashing on the world, then seems aghast at how little satire can move the needle. It’s a worthy subject; it just doesn’t land with the force of Don’t Look Up.
Key Facts Box
– Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu
– Lead actor: Tom Cruise
– President: John Goodman
– Supporting cast: Riz Ahmed, Michael Stuhlbarg
– Format: VistaVision, IMAX-compatible
– Release: Big-screen presentation
Source material: “‘Digger’s Wildest Twist? How It Cuts Big Movie Star Tom Cruise Back Down to Size,” Decider.
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