‘Digger’ review: Climate change satire will leave you feeling cold

Movie review

Sometimes, a wildly talented and imaginative artist can make a film that leaves you entirely cold, worn out by the in-your-face-ness of it all. Such is the case with “Digger,” the latest from Alejandro G. Iñárritu, whose “Birdman” a dozen years ago was a dizzying, enchanting work of cinematic origami. “Digger,” though more satirical, has some similarities to that film — not least, the mirrored names of the two main characters, Digger and Riggan, and the glorious cinematography of Emmanuel Lubezki — but it wears out its welcome far too quickly; watching it soon becomes an ordeal.

At the heart of “Digger” is a bit of stunt casting: Tom Cruise, unrecognizable in sparse gray hair, a fat suit, facial prosthetics and a shouty Texas-ish drawl, as oil tycoon Digger Rockwell, the world’s most powerful man, who realizes in the film’s early scenes that his company is responsible for an ecological disaster that will soon take an enormous human toll. Digger, wandering his mansion in silk pajamas and cowboy boots, is initially more interested in obsessively caring for his elderly cat (a creature so obviously animatronic that there’s no need for a “No animals were harmed in the production of this film” disclaimer; this makes more sense later, kind of), but soon he’s caught up in the catastrophe, which involves a massive ice shelf quickly named Judy.

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Enter a whole lot of other shouty men trying to solve the crisis: the president of the United States (a bellowing John Goodman), the vice president (Michael Stuhlbarg), a scientist/adviser (Riz Ahmed, who gets some good comic moments), a wild-eyed head of the military (Robert John Burke) and various other broadly acted hangers-on. It’s all very chaotic and extremely loud, and surprisingly Iñárritu seems to have no idea what to do with the material, after introducing a fairly predictable twist about a half-hour in.

There’s a lot of yelling, and a lot of filming his lead cast in tight close-ups shot from below (yes, we get it, they look bigger that way), and a lot of opportunities to admire the work of the makeup crew who so thoroughly transformed Cruise. And, alas, not a whole lot more (not to mention the complete waste of Oscar nominee Sandra Hüller, of “Anatomy of a Fall,” who has perhaps a dozen lines and no reason to be there). Cruise’s performance is simultaneously earnest and committed and very, very broad; he hits the same note throughout, not that we’d be able to get much nuance from behind all those prosthetics.

The time is right for a satire about climate change, but a satire should leave us a little uncomfortable, a little more thoughtful, a little bit changed. “Digger” just leaves us exhausted.

'Digger' ★★ (out of four)
With Tom Cruise, Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Sandra Hüller, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jesse Plemons. Directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, from a screenplay by Iñárritu, Alexander Dinelaris, Nicolás Giacobone and Sabina Berman. 128 minutes. Rated R for pervasive language. Opens Oct. 1 at multiple theaters.