This review includes spoilers for “Digger.”
“Digger” is an amazing film directed by Alejandro González Iñárittu that serves as a piece of cinematic clickbait. Not only is it Iñárittu’s biggest budget film to date, but it was also Warner Bros’ last picture before Paramount purchased the company on Oct. 6.
Reactions to the film have been… polarizing. On the surface, it poses itself as another drab, surface-level commentary on climate change and capitalism, featuring a bunch of rich white men acting like incompetent fools for the audience to gawk at.
But it’s revealed 30 minutes into the film that this movie is actually about a stage play for a production called “Fossil Fools,” which is a satirical take on an event that happened to the movie’s world. The entirety of Northern Europe and the United States were flooded because of an explosion on one of the rigs of oil tycoon Digger Rockwell.
This film is not a satire of current politics, climate change, or even the eventual apocalypse. It is towards people whose activism begins and ends with making and consuming art, such as the film “Don’t Look Up.”
“Don’t Look Up,” directed by Adam McKay (the genius behind “Step Brothers”), is about a meteorologist who discovers that a comet is plummeting toward earth. Long story short, it’s a farce about how we don’t listen to the smart people who are warning us about these serious issues until it’s too late, with subtle attempts at comedy. This film is among one of the worst I have personally seen. Its borderline disgusting use of comedy attempts to mask the fact that this point has been made to hell and back, and simultaneously tries to act like it’s the smartest film of our generation. I encourage you to watch it, but only to understand the point I am making.
“Digger” is a satire of this kind of film. It’s not about how humans are stupid and we’re driving ourselves to extinction because of our government and billionaires’ excessive greed. It is a satire about the kind of people who write, direct, and star in those stories, feeding us something that we have been fed a million times before, expecting change in the world just by creating art. Curtis Markson (Tom Cruise), who plays Digger Rockwell, directly says this to the audience; He calls the play a farce instead of a satire, and he’s correct.
Up to this point, the play has just been a bunch of buffoons acting like screaming idiots for the amusement of the audience, while not giving any further commentary besides “look how bad our world is.” More than just petty grievances about terrible satire, it also puts into perspective how this kind of story can be perverted and co-opted by the rich elite it’s meant to make fun of.
In the third act, after Curtis has his meltdown, it is revealed that one of the play’s producers, Kenny, is the nephew of Digger Rockwell. Curtis then gives an inspirational speech about how art is important, and how much he invested to demonstrate how stupid his uncle — and his whole family — truly were. This encourages everybody to get back to working on the play (mainly because Curtis is one the financiers), but any lingering sense of comedy that was once in the film’s play segments is replaced with a deep feeling of unease and turmoil.
During the argument between Curtis and the play’s director, Hannah, she keeps making the point that it’s the duty of the cast and crew to create something people can enjoy together and laugh at, even if it’s about a tragedy. Before we are aware that Kenny is Digger’s nephew, you can see where she is coming from, up until the reveal that she knew all along that this producer was a Rockwell. After this, all of her points become invalid, as she is taking money from the very hands that created disaster.
It’s similar to how Jason Reitman’s 2005 film “Thank You for Smoking” (a satire about tobacco companies lobbying to keep cigarettes deregulated) is partially funded by Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, two of the richest and most powerful men on earth.
The character of Kenny, in a sense, is a stand-in for Peter Thiel, much like the real-life Thiel with his Palantir. Kenny owns a massive security company, and when Curtis’ daughter goes missing on a flight, he gives Kenny her information in a desperate attempt to find her. There is a shot during the play’s members’ final bow where Kenny is standing off to the sidelines and smiling — almost psychopathically — while clapping, proving that he now controls the narrative, no matter how satirical it’s meant to be.
Overall, “Digger” is an amazing film. On top of a compelling performance by Tom Cruise and his co-stars, highlights include John Goodman, Riz Ahmed, and Jesse Plemons. It’s also pretty funny. It takes an idea that has been overdone to death and breathes new life into it, making it a must-watch in the genre of satire.
