“Digger” Review

For the first fifteen minutes of “Digger,” I was convinced I was going to hate it. I’ve been up and down on director Alejandro G. Iñárritu in the past, and this was feeling like my most despised kind of film: a “Don’t Look Up”-style satire that strains with the effort of patting itself on the back, confusing stating the obvious with espousing wisdom.

And then, miraculously, the story pivots.

The blunt satire is present, but it’s warped into something weirder, something more interesting. What is the role of art in processing disaster, is satire itself appropriate at the end of the world? And who gets to tell these stories? What catharsis do we seek when we consume media about real-world tragedy?

Digger Rockwell (Tom Cruise) is an oilman. Rich, powerful, besotted with his own mythology, telling his family’s history with oil to anybody who will listen, and even some who won’t. This is a man all too familiar to anybody who follows the news these days, so convinced of his unchecked power that he refuses to accept any reality that does not conform to his wishes. When a doctor tells him his beloved cat will die, he finds a different doctor to tell him the cat will live, even as it continues to decompose in Digger’s arms.

When an employee on one of his oil rigs in Greenland calls to warn him of a crack in the ice shelf caused by their drilling, expanding at an alarming rate, Digger talks his employee down and proclaims that there is no real problem for the simple reason he doesn’t want there to be one.

But of course, there is a very big problem, and the ensuing catastrophe threatens global disaster.

I’ve had the misfortune of catching some episodes of the Taylor Sheridan television show “Landman,” and I can’t help but see Digger and his world as a direct response to that show’s more unambiguous celebration of its protagonist. Digger rants and raves and orates his way in and out of problems, again and again, throwing out so much horseshit that you almost start to believe him, particularly in one speech to an angry mob, stating that because everybody is so reliant on oil for all their earthly comforts, they are just as culpable for the pending disaster as himself.

But unlike “Landman,” “Digger” does not let its smooth-talking protagonist off the hook. In perhaps the film’s most cathartic moment, Digger appeals to the president, claiming they just need to control the narrative, influence perception so the masses don’t pay attention to the looming destruction. After all, perception is reality. At this, Riz Ahmed’s Dr. Ganesh loses it, claiming perception is not reality. Reality is reality. Just because you say gravity doesn’t exist, doesn’t make it true. He proceeds to lift an expensive vase and drop it to the floor, adding a satisfying exclamation point to his diatribe.

Every frame of “Digger” is filled with such care and attention to detail — the sets, the costumes, the production design — all rendered so engaging by the legendary cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki. All of this wonderful craft is in service of, what will surely be to the annoyance of many, complicated and ambiguous themes.

There are some moments of self-satisfied exasperation, that have recurred in many of Iñárritu’s films, when characters take to a podium to monologue about the director’s worldview, rather than their own. These bits are patronizing and exhausting, suggesting the audience couldn’t understand the messaging unless they’re hit, repeatedly, over the head with it. And yet before any single message could annoy me enough with its insistence on being the one overarching theme, the movie would introduce a new wrinkle, a new character or monologue to muddy the thematic waters enough to provoke curiosity more than frustration.

Tom Cruise relishes the complicated, layered nature of his character, oscillating between broad comedy and more subtle, nuanced insecurity and trauma. Cruise humanizes not just his character, but the entire bizarre concept, keeping it from veering too far into absurdity, grounding the drama to keep the world an arm’s length away, but believable in its mundane suffering. He leads a cast filled with fascinating performances, each one calibrated intentionally to the given scene even as they may appear too farcical, or too subdued in the face of their costars.

“Digger” is creatively ambitious, and even if some of the moralizing is too self-congratulatory, some of the humor a little too unfunny, I was struck by its somber ending, forcing me to consider whether art helps cope with disaster, or just distracts from an otherwise cruel reality. In the face of tragedy, do you try to make the world better, or just get on with your day? I don’t have an answer to that question, and I’m not convinced the film does either, but it’s a thoughtful discussion dramatized with mesmerizing artistry by a collective of talents worthy of admiration for the effort.

“Digger” Directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu. Written by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Alexander Dinelaris, Nicolás Giacobone and Sabina Berman. Starring Tom Cruise, Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Sandra Hüller, Michael Stuhlbarg and Jesse Plemons. Running time: 129 minutes. Genres: Comedy, Drama. Rated R for pervasive language.