Take 89: Digger
In the Alejandr Gonzales Inarritu directed satirical black comedy Digger, a barely recognizable Ton Cruise (until you realize, oh wait, that’s Tom Cruise) plays Digger Rockwell, an eccentric billionaire oil tycoon who’s brash, ecologically reckless attitude causes environmental disaster (sorta.) Despite warning from his safety experts, a drilling excursion he orders in Greenland triggers a massive explosion setting a huge chunk of a glacier on a collision course toward Europe. With the President Compson (John Goodman) on his speed dial, they attempt to gaslight the entire world about what they have done and the damage they are causing. Things continue spiraling from there it boy, does it get weird. It is revealed to the audience that things are not exactly what they appear to be, but fiction and reality begin to blur making for one bizarre theater going experience.
As much as I was hoping to regale you with witticisms and hot take from this film, in all honesty, I just can’t. I have been dealing with a cold and or allergies, on medications, and just the usual exhaustion, I dozed off. A lot. I mean, A LOT. Every time I woke up, there was just more and more weirdness. But still, I will soldier on and try to make something of this here review.
First of, the acting was really good. Tom Cruise takes a huge swing here. This is a far cry from the guy in Risky Business, lip-syncing to “Old Time Rock and Roll” in his underwear. He’s creepy. He weird. He’s got an unhealthy obsession with his comedically aged dying cat. I mean, we say a little of it when he jumped on the couch on Oprah. He has learned to tap into it here, because, yeah…
The other major character was John Goodman’s President Compson. Dude is sooooo good. He has always been much more than Dan Connors and he likes to remind us of that from time to time. His loud, blow-hard nature is eerily reminiscent of other despots I’d just as soon not name here and it’s intense. I heard the lady next to me say “I don’t know how he didn’t actually have a heart attack” during one scene where the character goes fully OFF. And then, when the two are in scenes playing off each other- whoa! This is a pairing I probably would never have thought of prior to this, but boy, does it work!
This movie is probably brilliant and maybe I’d be able to see this is subsequent viewings. But for me, it was more confusing than anything else Again, I have no way of knowing exactly how long I would nod off and how much I missed, but I was able to follow along for the most part. I had to do a little research to catch up on some thing I may have missed, but even then, it sounds like it actually IS a bit confusing so I feel somewhat vindicated. But the broad strokes are evident and the big picture is fairly easy to follow.
There is an whoooole meta layer that I don’t want to go in without spoiling any thing major so there are tons of element that I just can’t even go into to avoid spoilers I do appreciate that it didn’t really seem to go out of it’s way to explain and oversimplify. The audience is given enough for it to mostly make sense. And the ending… I’ve gotta say, I kinda liked it. It’s a really cool way to make since of everything we say two hours prior to it.
It was fair. II tend to enjoy satirical. When it gets too dark, I tend to checkout. Fortunately, this one does every really good there so that makes it palatable. However what it’s serving isn’t something I’d typically order. But sure it was pretty entertaining. My score: 7.7
Thoughts? What type of grave did this one dig, deep or shallow? Tell me in the comments. And until next time…
