Digger

I have to admit that, while I felt compelled to see Digger, I wasn't really looking forward to it because I was put off by the desaturated color grading and the bombastic performances featured in the trailer.  I went to see it last night with my nephew and I can definitely see why it has divided critics and audiences but I think it is a masterpiece!  Digger Rockwell (Tom Cruise) is a wealthy, arrogant, and eccentric Texas oil tycoon whose company, Rockwell United, ignored reports of methane beneath an oil rig in Greenland and is now responsible for an explosion that dislodged an immense ice shelf now on its way to Europe.  Digger's head of environmental safety, Dr. Nirav Ganesh (Riz Ahmed), predicts thousands of deaths, millions of displaced people, and trillions of dollars worth of damage but he seems to be more concerned with the imminent death of his cat and, after consulting with U.S. President Compson (John Goodman), he decides to create an information firewall rather than take action.  When the inevitable happens, Digger deflects blame in a speech to the European Parliament by saying that the world is dependent on the oil he provides (in a monologue that will surely get Cruise a Best Actor nomination).  However, another even larger ice shelf breaks free and heads to Alaska and this requires a dramatic military response that leads to the downfall of both Digger and the president.  The first act has a strange artificiality with over the top satire and stylized cinematography, performances, and production design but a wild twist in the second act completely reframes everything that has come before and another twist at the end completely reframes everything once again.  People will either love or hate this choice but I loved it because, without giving away any spoilers, it emphasizes the power of art (satire in particular) as an escape from reality.  There are a lot of other themes to unpack, such as corporate greed, political corruption, manipulation of the media, and societal hypocrisy, but Iñárritu seems to be saying that, since nothing will stop the consequences of these actions, we might as well laugh at the destruction.  Everything that put me off in the trailer ended up working for me after seeing the context and I found it to be really funny at times (but I was often the only one in the theater laughing) as well as incredibly thought-provoking (I'm still thinking about it).  Cruise gives his best performance since Magnolia (the dude can act when he's not jumping on and out of airplanes) and Ahmed is equally brilliant.  I also really enjoyed a monologue by Jesse Plemens (as a character I won't spoil) because I think it sums up the thesis of the movie briliantly.  This will definitely not be for everyone but I really dug it (pun intended).