Digger

Didacticism can be tiring and annoying. But when it’s packaged within creative filmmaking and delivered through darkly hilarious dialogue, dedicated performances, and innovative visuals, it transforms from irritating to downright inspired.

Such is the case for director/co-writer Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Digger, the Dr. Strangelove of our time that shifts its sights from nuclear war to climate change yet finds some of the same key players at the controls.

Those successful results may not be surprising coming from the masterful creator of Birdman, The Revenant, and the underseen Bardo. However, it’s at least somewhat more unexpected when Tom Cruise is at the center of it all.

Liberated (?) from the shackles of the increasingly awful and stunt-oriented Mission: Impossible series, the movie star gives his first “real” acting since American Made (2017) as notorious oil tycoon Digger Rockwell, the most powerful person on Earth. A fiery Texan with seemingly endless energy and lip, Digger provides Cruise a chance to tap into the unbridled ego of his best cocky roles — Frank T.J. Mackey (Magnolia), Jerry Maguire, and Vincent Lauria (The Color of Money) — and the return to his strengths inspires his best work since Collateral (2004).

The dialogue by Iñárritu and his screenwriting team as Digger’s Greenland rig explodes and threatens global security ripples with absurdist humor that would make Terry Southern proud. And Cruise receives ample support from a gifted supporting cast portraying politicians (John Goodman’s President Compson; Michael Stuhlbarg’s VP), scientists (Riz Ahmed’s Dr. Ganesh), and family members (Sandra Hüller’s Emma Rockwell, Digger’s sister) who circle our antihero with comic desperation as he navigates this precarious situation.

It’s all captured through the distinct, “floating observer” visual style of cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, reuniting with Iñárritu on a feature for the first time since The Revenant (2015). Under the latter’s direction, this talented ensemble of actors and technicians realize the complex material’s potential and do so with consistent artistic wonder.

That sense of awe is established within the first half hour, but just shy of that juncture a revelation occurs that adds surprise context to the story at hand and deepens its emotional impact. Combining themes from Birdman and Bardo, these new wrinkles suggest that Iñárritu’s current interests concern the lives of artists and their struggles, and whether their efforts truly mean a damn against larger social and environmental issues that dwarf their importance.

This messaging might not be something that certain viewers want to hear outside of a documentary, but nonfiction films on these subjects over the past few decades haven’t truly made a dent, so perhaps it’s time for narrative films to try an invoke change — particularly one metered out so intelligently and boldly that Iñárritu isn’t afraid to skewer Digger’s very existence.

In our current sociopolitical climate, there may not be a more vital, sobering, yet entertaining work of cinema.

Grade: A-minus. Rated R. Now playing at AMC River Hills 10, Carolina Cinemark, the Fine Arts Theatre, and Regal Biltmore Grande.

(Photo: Warner Bros.)