Digger
Cast: Tom Cruise, John Goodman, Riz Ahmed
Writers: Alejandro G. Inarritu, Alexander Dinelaris, Nicholas Giocobone & Sabrina Berman
Director: Alejandro G. Inarritu
**** and ½ *’s out of Five
When watching this, it’s very clear that this is satire on our current administration’s views on nature and how to deal with problems that they started in the first place. Methane gases caused an oil rig to break off an ice chunk big enough to wipe out a whole country. Let’s fix it with more bombs, is what they would say. Instead of contacting the presidents of he countires in Euope and warning people about this dangerous situation. Let’s all get together in a big room and find a scapegoat to blame. The people who make up the president’s cabin are almost like the ones in Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove but somehow look like they have been painted by artist, Ralph Steadman (ask your parents if you don’t know who that is). They are these loud, brash, almost cartoonish individuals who feel that it’s best to prove they are right even when they are wrong.
This brings us to our title character. Digger is the kind of character who feels like he could have been the secret love child of Foghorn Leghorn and Yosemite Sam. A larger than life Texan with a lot of charm and an even bigger mouth. He talks to everyone in this grand operatic way because he feels that the louder he gets, the more successes will come his way. He reminds me of the character Billy Bob Thornton played in the series Landman. He is that inside voice of that character just cranked up with a nice bump of any illegal stimulant. Yet, every single thing he says is intoxicating. Even if you don’t believe in what he is discussing. It is impossible not to hang on every word to hear what he says next. There is a moment where he gives a long monologue and it’s the moment that I hope gives Tom Cruise an Oscar nomination.
Tom Cruise has only been nominated for acting three times. Best Supporting for Magnolia and Best Actor for Born on the Fourth of July and Jerry Maguire. Although I believe he was robbed of a much deserved win for his work as Les Grossman in Tropic Thunder. This movie may be the best of his entire career. I understand why they had a teaser trailer showing all of his past roles before they showed any footage from Digger and yeah. He is actually that good and more. Some will claim that it’s nothing more than just being over the top, but once layers begin to unravel. Your thoughts about him begin to change.
The supporting cast are just as incredible as our leading man. Riz Ahmed as Ganesh has a great moment where he tells Digger that what is happening is his fault and hearing that honesty does help lead him into making the right choices to deal with the situation. John Goodman is really good at portraying our current president but making him appear to have a little intelligence even though there isn’t much there Jesse Plemons, Sandra Huller and Sophie Wilde all give incredible performances in scenes that even overshadows Tom Cruise,and you would think his ego would put a damper on it but it's not there. I think Tom cares a lot about the craft of acting and story tellling that some may think
Reuniting with cinematographer, Emmanuel Lubezki (Birdman, The Revenant) and presented in glorious Vista Vision. Alejandro G. Inarritu helps create images on screen that are as loud and big as Digger’s personality and look incredible. Especially in IMAX The use of real life sets just adds so much to the believability of this feature.
This movie has a great message about where we could be heading if things don’t change now, but most people won’t focus on that aspect. Half way through, there will be people who will be unsatisfied on where the story takes them that they won’t be interested in finishing it.
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