The film’s poor box office performance shows many movie-goers still just don’t get it.

For quite some time now, a very common complaint about movies being released is that they lack originality; one only needs to look at the endless train of live-action Disney remakes to know there is some validity to this argument. So for those movie-goers looking for something original, novel and exciting there is great news: “Digger” is the movie for you. While the movie may not be for people looking for more of the same old, the movie is absolutely captivating and thought-provoking to the point of almost being too much, and everything it does is done very well.

The first trailers released for “Digger” focused not on the movie, but on Tom Cruise and his return to acting, and while they do not serve as great advertisements for the movie, they do make a promise that Cruise is going to put on a worthwhile performance. Very fortunately, Cruise delivers and then some. In many of his recent movies, it can be difficult to get invested in the character on the screen because it just feels like watching Tom Cruise. However, his acting as Digger Rockwell, an eccentric and off-the-rails oil tycoon, is amazing. Cruise really demonstrates to the audience that Digger cares far more about his dying, sickly cat than the entire western European seaboard as a giant iceberg barrels toward it. Digger is an absolutely absurd character —  as are most of the characters in “Digger”. The satire and humor are often intentionally over the top, and could be very jarring to people who do not care for more absurdist humor. While it might be alienating for some people, I absolutely loved this element of the movie and how farcical it was. I would have gone to see the movie just for this satirical presentation of the billionaire class and its impact on the environment and our lives. However, I would not have liked the movie as much if it were just this. So, for readers who do not want any spoilers, just know that there is more to the movie than over-the-top satire and that I highly encourage you to go watch it.

For those still here, a somewhat major spoiler starts now. About 30 or so minutes into the movie, the audience finds out Digger is not really who we think he is, but rather Curtis Markson, an actor playing Digger in a theatrical reproduction of the real events that led the world to the state it resides in during the movie. While the play, named “Fossil Fools,” heavily satirizes events, those events were real and completely screwed over the lives of everyone on Earth. This meta lens provides a lot of depth and context for the other parts of the movie. It does an excellent job of portraying that “Fossil Fools” is fake through scenes that break the illusion — for example, Digger gives a speech to the European Union where you can see mannequins in the audience — but somehow all those scenes are still incredibly captivating. Even though we know the story is not one-to-one with the events that actually occurred, the fact that those events did happen and had a devastating impact on the world really draws you in.

I knew going into this movie that I would probably like it because I am a sucker for political commentary, but “Digger” truly blew me away in a totally unanticipated way. The meta aspect of the film adds a lot of nuance to its themes by questioning art’s role in criticizing society, in addition to the many questions the film inherently raises through Digger’s story. Everybody in this film put on a spectacular performance, and I greatly enjoyed every minute of it. I would absolutely recommend this movie to anybody looking for a unique experience, and it is my favorite movie of the year so far.

★★★★★

Digger receives 5/5 stars from this reviewer.