Digger Rockwell (Tom Cruise) is facing two crises: his ailing cat, Maggie, is not eating, and his business has sparked a global catastrophe. President Compson (John Goodman) relies on Digger for direction on how to handle the crisis. While Digger knows exactly how to spin it so business can keep running, he is powerless to stop the actual damage. What is the point of telling a good story if it does not actually save anyone? “Digger” (2026) is a contender for one of Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s most political movies, but one of his most despairing over the impotence of an artist in the face of crushing reality to stop death from claiming loved ones. Paging the spirit of Leonard Bernstein for an intervention to restore Iñárritu’s faith in art.
Cruise loves prosthetics. He seems to be able to cut loose a little more under layers of makeup and flab. Cruise’s collaboration with Iñárritu feels like a cross between “Magnolia” (1999) and “Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)” (2014). When Digger initially appears on screen, it may be the most real version of him before he gets into showman role spinning yarns about family lore as an excuse to verbally browbeat people into doing what he wants with less resistance. While people love him, he only shows real love towards Maggie but lacks empathy in seeing how others may feel similarly about other people’s lives. He continues the patriarchal family tradition of only caring about oil. He sees life unfolding outside of windows as if it was just another flat screen television. He has a stubborn disregard for the truth or facing reality.
Cruise and the entire ensemble cast deliver layered performances even though the majority of their screentime is so deliberately exaggerated that it feels like a play. Think of how Wes Anderson movies always feature people speaking in monotone. OK, flip it. Lina (Emma D’Arcy) is his assistant. Emma (Sandra Hüller) is his little sister who is trying to make a name for herself, and Cate Blanchett could have played the role. Sometimes Hüller’s accent leaks through, but it was likely a deliberate creative choice given the family history and overall trajectory of the story. Kyle (Teddy Hawley) is Emma’s son and may be the only other person who likes Maggie. As the crisis worsens, he gets closer with his uncle. Dr. Berg (Rose Hatt) is the veterinarian who tries to get Digger to see that Maggie is out of time. He is not the only expert trying to get Digger to stop thinking there is a way to trick death and get more time. Sandy Clarkson (Danny Kirane) is the first of Digger’s employees who appears onscreen to ring the alarm. With two men initially flanking him in the first act like backup singers, Dr. Ganesh (Riz Ahmed), the head of environmental safety and security, deliver worse news, and Ganesh ends up being the only voice of reason, but also complicit in his willingness to accept the benefits of working for Digger.
Compson and his entourage’s initial appearance in Digger’s boardroom elicited the most laughs in the movie. If you think Goodman looks sick, breathe a sigh of relief because it makes sense in the story’s context. Eddie (Michael Stuhlbarg) is the vice president who despises Digger but is too servile to be effective. Stuhlbarg is one of my faves, but it did not feel as if it was a role that only he could play, and he was underutilized. Fitzgerald (Robert John Burke) offers a consistent strategy of bomb the problem. Defense Secretary Amos (Burn Gorman) would not be noticeable if Gorman was not playing him. The Attorney General (Pip Torrens) tries to talk some sense into them about legalities, but without much luck. A preacher is always nearby like an honorary, active Cabinet Member. Reality is so messed up that these archetypes are so accurate that it is barely satire.
When Digger visits the European Union, it is almost as if he traveled back in time and is visiting a government building that was once in the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War. No one can accuse “Digger” of being subtle, and Digger’s speech to a crowd of booing, rowdy politicians seem as if it would break out into a riot. The lighting and makeup make them seem more like the entire room, walls, objects and people have a patina like a statue. While Digger does not win them all over, he sways enough people with his siren song that he defies the odds. This speech is a rebuke of hypocrisy not only directed at the outraged European Union members, but the theatrical audience for allowing Rockwell to be right.
The ultimate story seems to be that even if Digger and the Rockwell family show their worst sides, everyone, including the theatrical audience, get nothing but empty catharsis for participating in his political theater. He is still the one telling the story and winning though if he is winning, everyone, including Digger, loses. Everyone enters a deal with the devil, except the devil is just another delusional man with resources that people rely on and is in as much danger. He pooh poohs alternative, sounds believable and seems like the only choice.
Iñárritu seems as if he feels guilty for accepting money and resources from these men to tell these stories which ultimately add to their glory and credibility while ignoring that he must speak up against a problem that they cause. It is bread and circuses. Digger offers himself as a villain while claiming the spoils of the victor and hero, and the people like Ganesh mistakenly believe that their day of victory has come through public embarrassment. “Digger” grapples with the Saturday Night Live problem when they give a platform to a reprehensible politician instead of skewering them though that may have been the original intention. Implicitly the only solution is not to give them a stage, but to stop them from getting what they want, permission to continue committing acts that physically endanger everyone. It is ultimately a self-critique of having a profession rooted in bread and circuses.
There is a theoretical tighter, shorter cut of “Digger.” There are a few narrative twists throughout the story, but they get more surprising and effective as it gets closer to the denouement. Some of these twists are heavy-handed, but critical thought and media literacy are at an all-time low, so it feels necessary to hit people over the head with it. Here is a little hint: Jesse Plemmons plays a mysterious benefactor who hovers over the action, and he gets a monologue that ties it altogether. It is obvious in retrospect, but still a nice surprise that verges on melodrama and for some, may raise more questions than it answers.
Sadly, “Digger” is perfectly timed, especially considering what happened in Nepal. If you saw the commercials with all the cute little dances on a boardwalk at dusk, adjust your expectations. While there are musical elements and the scenes of environmental chaos are done to perfection, it is a little less fun when it seems more plausible than not. Visually the switch from a movie horizontal screen to a vertical, cell phone format echoes a popular message, “Climate change will manifest as a series of disasters viewed through phones with footage that gets closer and closer to where you live until you’re the one filming it.” Iñárritu just wants dibs to stop the disaster from leaking into unimagined forms of screens into the future. Can a story save the world if stories killed it? Will he win the narrative race? Sadly, it is unlikely but do it anyway.
