Review: Digger is both frustrating and brilliant—by design

I found the trailer for Digger intriguing, starring a nearly unrecognizable Tom Cruise and giving off strong Doctor Strangelove vibes. Plus, it is four-time Oscar-winning director Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s (Birdman) first English-language film since 2015’s The Revenant. Those elements quickly moved it near the top of my “must-see” list even if details about the actual plot were lacking. Given Iñárritu’s pedigree, the film seemed poised to be prime Oscar bait.

(Major spoilers appear below the gallery. We’ll give you a heads-up when we get there.)

By now it’s clear that Digger is on track to be one of the biggest bombs of the year instead, racking up a mere $20 million globally its opening weekend, against a $125 million (possibly more) budget. It has sharply polarized critics and audiences alike, with some appreciating Iñárritu’s bold, creative swings and others finding the film practically unwatchable.

Count me among the film’s unabashed champions, even though Digger turned out to be nothing like what I expected. It’s closer to absurdist theater than satire or dark comedy, and it’s not aiming to be the Doctor Strangelove of climate change. This is a film that doesn’t just challenge the viewer; it deliberately keeps the audience off-balance, its excesses pushing the boundaries of one’s patience at times—and then Iñárritu sticks the landing with a savagely moving third act in which the final pieces of his vision fall into place.

That said, it’s also the kind of film destined to irritate, if not outright alienate, a solid faction of the audience. I get why plenty of people dislike Digger so intensely, even if I came to the opposite conclusion.

Iñárritu had the idea for Digger the character shortly after wrapping The Revenant. “I knew who this character was,” he told Variety back in July. “I knew how he spoke, how he survived, how he seduced reality into agreeing with him.” Initially the project was being developed at Netflix with Leonardo DiCaprio as a possible star; Netflix opted to make Don’t Look Up with DiCaprio instead. (Some have compared Digger to Don’t Look Up; apart from a climate theme, they are very different films.) But the idea piqued Cruise’s interest; the actor was a longtime fan of the director. And thus Digger was born.