(Photo Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures)
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(“Digger” trailer courtesy of Warner Bros. Australia)
Sometimes, there is a difference between a thespian and a movie star.
However, some like Tom Cruise (“Top Gun: Maverick”) have the skills to straddle the fence between box office smashes that usually do not get awards, or even nominations, and movies that might not make a billion dollars worldwide but represent true artistic expression.
In “Digger,” the veteran actor and movie star showcases a side of himself that audiences may have never seen before.
And as a result, he might garner a Best Actor Oscar nomination, and a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nomination for his co-star John Goodman (“10 Cloverfield Lane”), in “Digger,” a film that has divided movie critics like never before.
The film “Digger” is an outlandish satire that places a microscope on the entire world when it comes to climate change, pointing the blame at everyone from politicians to business moguls to regular people who cannot live without their overnight Amazon Prime delivery, which contributes to increasing carbon emissions, adversely impacting the planet for future generations.
In the movie, the character Digger (Cruise) is an odd Texas country boy to say the least.
His eccentricities are beyond weird, like sleeping in the bed with his cat, even though the cat urinates in the bed while he is in it with her.
When Maggie the cat will not eat cat food from Digger’s finger, the oil tycoon eats the cat food himself.
Digger’s oil company pumps over a million barrels of oil a day across the globe.
But there is something dangerous occurring at one of his locations in Greenland.
Whether it is because of hubris, old age or incompetence, Digger’s operations seem out of control, despite his arrogant belief that he knows what he is doing.
His emails go unanswered.
Digger must be reminded of who someone is before he talks with them on the phone.
And even when he converses with them, he mistakes their previous conversation as being months ago when it was only a couple of weeks ago.
One of his employees in Greenland finally gets Digger on a FaceTime call and informs him of a crack in one of their surfaces, which might lead to catastrophe.
Although the Greenland project employs countless people, meaning that if they shut down the operation for possible danger, many families would not eat, Digger leaves it in the hands of his employee to determine if he wants to make the call to shut down the entire project, leaving millions of dollars or more on the table.
While his employees might be griping about safety hazards, Digger must tend to more important business, like getting medical care for his cat who refuses to eat.
But when something bad ultimately happens with one of his oil projects, Digger must deal with the clean-up, which could have a global impact.
Although the impact could be global, many people know where the buck will stop.
The blame will be placed on the Americans.
Therefore, Digger, as well as the leader of the free world President Compson (Goodman), his Vice President (Michael Stuhlbarg, “The Shape of Water”) and other Cabinet members must come up with something quickly to do damage control on something that could potentially damage the entire planet.
National critics have labeled “Digger” as over the top.
But how can anyone not be over the top in expressing the warning signs of climate change?
Many people still make climate change a political issue when it is really a people issue.
Will people not even born yet get to enjoy the world like previous generations have enjoyed it?
Or will current and past generations leave the planet in an unlivable state because they decided to bury their head in the sand, in favor of political power and preposterous amounts of profit from oil and gas?
Sometimes a quiet warning does not suffice and an uppercut to the jaw, with Mike Tyson and George Foreman-like power combined, is what is necessary to save the planet once and for all.
Shout-out to Cruise for taking a risk with “Digger.
Often, when artists have remained at the top of the Hollywood game for 43 years (“Risky Business” dropped in 1983), there is often little left to prove and little else to do because they would have already done practically everything imaginable in four decades.
But with “Digger,” Cruise found something that could stretch him creatively and intellectually.
Meanwhile, Goodman portrays President Compson in a farcical President Franklin Delano Roosevelt kind of way.
Those who know history, know the complications that former President Roosevelt had to endure during his tenure in the White House.
Like Roosevelt, Compson faces a doomsday scenario.
And the history of the planet might ride on Compson’s decision-making.
And while Cruise and Goodman definitely deserve their props, so does Riz Amed (“Sound of Metal”) for his role as the scientist Ganesh.
The scientist is that one scared employee who wants to stay professional and keep his job but then grows a pair just at the right time.
Unfortunately, “Digger” is a political movie.
And during this tumultuous and polarizing time in politics, some might label “Digger” as a woke movie.
But it is better to be awake and aware of the perils facing the planet than to remain asleep while a devastating nightmare becomes a more devastating reality for the future.
REGAL RATINGS
FOUR CROWNS=EXCELLENT
THREE CROWNS=GOOD
TWO CROWNS=AVERAGE
ONE CROWN=POOR
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