Home · Entertainment · Oct 5 archive
Alejandro G. Iñárritu Knows That ‘Digger’ Is Polarizing. That’s the Point.
Confirmed
In Short: Digger, the new film from Alejandro G.
Digger, the new film from Alejandro G. Iñárritu, starring Tom Cruise as eccentric oil tycoon Digger Rockwell, is a polarizing project that has critics divided.
In the film, Cruise plays Digger Rockwell, an eccentric oil billionaire who sets out on a frantic mission to prove he is humanity's savior after the disaster he helped cause.
The film's environmental message and critique of the oil industry are central to its narrative, with Digger and his father having known about the potential disaster for decades but managing to hush it up thanks to bribes and backroom government deals.
Despite the film's polarizing nature, it is clear that 'Digger' is a significant project for both Cruise and Iñárritu.
Digger's release comes at a critical time for Warner Bros., which saw a significant drop in box office revenue over the summer.
The studio is banking on Digger to turn around its fortunes, with insiders calling it Cruise's 'Oscar lock' and a potential career-defining role.
In a performance that melds his cocky motivational speaker from Magnolia with his belligerent, prosthetics-clad studio executive from Tropic Thunder, Cruise plays powerful oil baron Digger Rockwell, an overbearing boor named for the shovel with which his granddaddy dug his way to a family fortune.
The film's success could have significant implications for both Cruise and Iñárritu, who are known for their ambitious and challenging projects.
The positive reviews call Digger audacious, wild, and one of a kind, while negative reviews describe it as an exasperatingly shallow, laborious, self-congratulatory satire.
Iñárritu's ambitious and challenging style is evident in Digger, which is described as a satirical farce that pushes boundaries.
The studio's marketing campaign for Digger reflects this divide, featuring both positive and negative reviews.
The film's polarizing nature is the point, with Iñárritu knowing that Digger is meant to be a provocative and thought-provoking work.
What this adds
The film's marketing campaign for Digger reflects the divide, featuring both positive and negative reviews.
The film's polarizing nature is the point, with Iñárritu knowing that Digger is meant to be a provocative and thought-provoking work.
What's confirmed
- When an explosion is reported at the drilling site, Digger is more worried about the damage to the oil rig than he is the human casualties or the massive dislodged ice shelf headed for Europe, where scientists predict its impact will trigger a tsunami and displace millions of people.
- Iñárritu, Alexander Dinelaris, Nicolás Giacobone, Sabina Berman Rated R, 2 hours 9 minutes Digger epitomizes the difference between big swing and hubristic folly more than any film since Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis, another wildly ambitious bid to skewer the chaos of contemporary reality.
- In a performance that melds his cocky motivational speaker from Magnolia with his belligerent, prosthetics-clad studio executive from Tropic Thunder, Cruise plays powerful oil baron Digger Rockwell, an overbearing boor named for the shovel with which his granddaddy dug his way to a family fortune.
- The performance gets called the biggest swing of his career, and for these critics, the size of the movie is the point.
- Cruise stars as Digger Rockwell, an oil billionaire and the most powerful man in the world, who sets out on a frantic mission to prove he is humanity’s savior before the disaster he unleashed destroys everything.
- The positive reviews call Digger audacious, wild, and one of a kind.
- Warner Bros. is asking moviegoers to “decide for yourself” with a new ad for Tom Cruise’s “ Digger ” that touts both negative and positive reactions.
- The film's success could have significant implications for both Cruise and Iñárritu, who are known for their ambitious and challenging projects.
What's still developing
- Digger is so used to being cocooned among yes men that he’s almost affronted when his head of environmental security (Danny Kirrane) gets through on a video call from the Arctic oil field where the Rockwell workforce has been pumping 9,000 barrels a day, with nine months remaining on the company’s lease.
- Digger The Bottom Line Dead and buried, or ought to be.
- 2 Cast : Tom Cruise, Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Sandra Hüller, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jesse Plemons, Emma D’Arcy, Sophie Wilde, Robert John Burke Director : Alejandro G.
- UPDATE: An insider calls Digger the creative accommodation keeping Tom Cruise happy, as De Luca and Abdy stay at Warner Bros. Tom Cruise’s Digger is getting hammered by critics.
- And the new pitch-black satire from Birdman ’s Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu, Digger, is getting plenty of attention, but it’s little to do with the man at the helm.
- Digger is also a long-term ally of the President ( John Goodman, 10 Cloverfield Lane ) who decides that, because his friend caused the situation, he should put things right, so the ageing tycoon embarks on a frantic mission to get the planet back to something approaching normal.
- Digger is big – epic, even – and bold, following Inarritu’s usual challenging style, one that allows him to experiment and push boundaries.
- In the film, Digger Rockwell, played by Cruise, is portrayed as a powerful figure who is more concerned with the damage to his oil rig than the human casualties or environmental disaster his actions have caused.
- Russell’s Amsterdam, bloated movies by directors so drunk on their exalted reputations they forgot there was an audience to consider.” – The Hollywood Reporter “It makes the movie, however unintentionally, seem to be about nothing so much as Tom Cruise taking on this role, and Iñárritu erecting the edifice for him to stand on.