Home · Entertainment · Oct 2 archive
Digger: Tom Cruise leans into one of his career’s most remarkable performances with glee
Confirmed
In Short: Tom Cruise delivers one of his most remarkable performances in Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s 'Digger,' a film that satirizes American idiocy and overconfidence.
Cruise portrays Digger Rockwell, the world’s wealthiest man and a prominent oil tycoon, who faces a global crisis partly due to his own ignorance.
The film’s early scenes feature an almost unrecognizable Cruise, speaking in a strong Texan accent and wearing prosthetics to appear older and heavier.
Iñárritu’s direction and Cruise’s performance are inextricably linked, with the director’s audacious storytelling complementing Cruise’s mesmerizing turn.
Digger Rockwell is a complex character, blending the eccentricity of a Bond villain, the arrogance of a stereotypical American, and the charisma of Tom Cruise.
Despite its critical acclaim, 'Digger' faces mixed reviews, with some praising it as a brilliant and magnificent work, while others find it exhausting and not particularly funny.
Warner Bros. expects a potentially disastrous opening weekend for 'Digger,' with its current Rotten Tomatoes rating at 53% and Metacritic score at 44/100.
At the Los Angeles premiere, Cruise expressed confidence in the film’s reception, stating, “I was very successful since I was a kid.”
Background
At the Los Angeles premiere of 'Digger,' Tom Cruise and Alejandro González Iñárritu faced a mixed audience reaction.
Cruise told a full house at the Academy Museum’s 945-seat David Geffen Theater, “I was very successful since I was a kid,” indicating his confidence in the film’s reception.
What's confirmed
- Cruise portrays Digger Rockwell, the world’s wealthiest man and a prominent oil tycoon, who faces a global crisis partly due to his own ignorance.
- The film’s early scenes feature an almost unrecognizable Cruise, speaking in a strong Texan accent and wearing prosthetics to appear older and heavier.
- Iñárritu’s direction and Cruise’s performance are inextricably linked, with the director’s audacious storytelling complementing Cruise’s mesmerizing turn.
- Digger Rockwell is a complex character, blending the eccentricity of a Bond villain, the arrogance of a stereotypical American, and the charisma of Tom Cruise.
- Despite its critical acclaim, 'Digger' faces mixed reviews, with some praising it as a brilliant and magnificent work, while others find it exhausting and not particularly funny.
- Warner Bros. expects a potentially disastrous opening weekend for 'Digger,' with its current Rotten Tomatoes rating at 53% and Metacritic score at 44/100.
What's still developing
- Over the past 45 years, Tom Cruise has remained one of the most prominent and beloved movie stars.
- Cruise demonstrated his dramatic range and depth in the likes of Rain Man and Born on the Fourth of July in the 1980s and Jerry Maguire and Magnolia in the 1990s, but, in the past 15 years, has delivered largely indistinguishable turns as Ethan Hunt, Jack Reacher, and a collective of other, extraordinarily similar characters.
- Cruise digs himself out of this state of relative monotony in Alejandro G.
- Iñárritu’s Digger, an ambitious and breathtaking satire on American idiocy and overconfidence backed by Cruise’s best ever performance.
- It is impossible to separate Digger from either titular character or its leading man.
- Also Read – Digger movie review: After 30 years of defying gravity, Tom Cruise takes his biggest leap And, that ending… does it give Rockwell a sort-of redemption the film is telling us he does not deserve?
- What is Digger, is a question Kenny (Jesse Plemmons) asks at a crucial moment in Alejandro G Iñárritu’s latest film.
- Yeah, does it, when we are currently at the mercy of the world’s most powerful leader who may be equally unhinged, and not averse to destruction?
- Also Read – Riz Ahmed on beating Fahadh Faasil, Vir Das to Digger role: ‘Hope we get to work together’ One can argue that Digger doesn’t actually have much that is new to say, from the avarice of oil billionaires to cowardice of politics.
- And that the effect of the one rousing scene where Tom Cruise’s Digger a.k.a Rockwell holds up the mirror to the world is frittered away by Iñárritu simultaneously mocking his titular character.
- Despite the fact that the film stars Tom Cruise, you probably haven’t heard much about it until now.
- Here are a few quick facts to bring you up to speed: RELATED: Doug Liman & Tom Cruise Have Their Eyes on Something Fans Have Wanted for Years With a star-studded cast and award-winning director, this “comedy of catastrophic proportions” has been fairly quiet outside awards-season circles.