Digger and What’s Making Us Happy

Pop Culture Happy Hour

Pop Culture Happy Hour discusses Alejandro G. Iñárritu's new film Digger, a polarizing Oscar contender starring Tom Cruise as an oil baron whose negligence triggers a climate

Key takeaways

• Bob Mondello says Digger required him to think hard and that he had a ball at the picture.
• Roxanna Haddadi admires the film's construction and says Tom Cruise is doing something he has not done since Collateral in terms of acting.

Main topics

• Digger film review
• Tom Cruise performance

Notable quotes

I had a ball at this picture.

Conclusion

The episode offers a useful spoiler-light preview of Digger as an ambi

Transcript preview

Speaker 5 (0:01) This election season, you can streamline your news intake with Up First. Our team of reporters and editors works overnight, so you can start every morning with three stories you need to know. In short episodes, 12-14 minutes long, to save you time and your sanity. Follow Up First on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 2 (0:22) I had heard beforehand that this was almost a three-hour movie, and it isn't. It's a two-hour movie. But I think you spend the next 40 minutes arguing about it. Yes. So it kind of takes up that time. We did. They're in the theater. I mean, afterwards, we came out and we were just buzzing. Speaker 1 (0:43) The new movie Digger is a loud, surprising, audacious, and sure-to-be-polarizing entry in this year's Oscars race. The film stars Tom Cruise as a powerful oil baron who's helped unleash an existential threat on the world. But that's only the beginning. I'm Stephen Thompson. Joining me today on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour is NPR film critic Bob Mondello. Hey, Bob. Hey. Also with us is Vulture TV critic Roxanna Haddadi. Hey, Roxanna. Hey, Speaker 3 (1:10) thank you for having me. Speaker 1 (1:11) So to give a general sense of what's going on here, the Digger in the title is Digger Rockwell. He's a swaggering good old boy oil man played by Tom Cruise in heavy prosthetics. Early in the film, we learn that Digger is responsible for a drilling expedition in Greenland that's gone terribly awry due to his negligence and is sending a massive ice shelf floating to the northern coast of Europe. That looming devastation attracts the attention of the president, played by John Goodman, as well as a well-intentioned scientist in Digger's employ, played by Riz Ahmed. But there's even more than that going on in Digger, which takes some pretty big narrative swings along the way. Now, it's tough to talk about Digger without spoiling some major twists and reveals, and because the movie is coming out today, we're going to keep this conversation as spoiler-free as humanly possible. But just to be clear, that's... leaving out a whole lot of what Digger is all about. The film was directed and co-written by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, whose past films include The Revenant and Birdman. Now, Bob Mondello, I'm going to start with you. What'd you think of Digger? I had the best time. Speaker 2 (2:19) I was Speaker 8 (2:20) so intrigued by this movie. I haven't been asked to think. a whole lot at a movie in a while, I don't think. And this one required me to think and to think hard about a lot of the things it was trying to do. I had a ball at this picture. Speaker 1 (2:36) Okay. So Speaker 8 (2:37) thumbs Speaker 1 (2:38) up from Bob Mondello. How about you, Roxanna? Speaker 3 (2:41) We, you know, sometimes it's nice when we see a movie together so we can talk about it in the lobby afterward. And I remember telling you, I might wake up. tomorrow morning and love this movie. And I'm not at full love yet. But I am at a lot of admiration. And people will say like they admire a movie when they don't want to admit that they liked it. I liked it. But I also admire all of the things that it's doing, the ways that it's constructed. To Bob's point, the fact that it makes you hold... would say like three to four ideas in your head at the same time when was the last time a movie did that and it wasn't doing like time travel or like genre stuff like there's something really interesting about the way that this movie plays out it keeps adding little details that you need to sort of like file away for later but it is very propulsive it's a great time I really enjoy Tom Cruise, and I think that he is doing something here that he has not done, I would say, since Collateral, honestly, in terms of acting. So I'm also... Pro. I'm not on love yet. Maybe check in with me tomorrow morning, but I'm almost there. One of the Speaker 2 (3:59) things I thought about, I had heard beforehand that this was almost a three-hour movie, and it isn't. It's Speaker 3 (4:04) a Speaker 2 (4:04) two-hour movie, but I think you spend the next 40 minutes arguing about it. It kind of takes up that time. We did. They're in the theater. Speaker 8 (4:14) I Speaker 2 (4:14) mean, afterwards, we came out and we were just buzzing. Right? We Speaker 8 (4:17) were just, you know, sort of bouncing off the walls. I thought it was fascinating. I Speaker 1 (4:21) think it is definitely a movie that is not going to elicit a... Yeah. But I do think there is a... a significant percentage of the audience is going to be infuriated by this movie. I do think this is going to be one of the more kind of polarizing entries in the Oscars race. And there often are movies like that, right? Like there is a didactic quality to the film that occasionally recalls Don't Look Up, which was a very polarizing film in an Oscars race from a few years ago. Iñárritu has made polarizing films like Birdman. Some films are just... attempting really, really big swings. And those are going to work more for some people than for others. I will say for me, like, yes, it is a very propulsive film. It is a very loud and grabby film. There is long stretches of this film are just like men screaming at each other. And as some of those scenes were playing out, I found myself kind of. feeling hostile toward this film in the way that it felt sort of hostile toward me. But then, of course, and we can't reveal how or why, decisions are made in the film that recontextualize some of what we're seeing and make you understand why some of the weird choices that are being made in this film are being made. There are elements of the look of this film that are a little inscrutable early that make a lot of sense late. And in that way, I did ultimately find myself enjoying it and found myself, as Roxanna said, admiring it, which can sound like a very backhanded way to praise a film. But I do think there is going to be... An army of haters. Certainly. Coming after this movie. Yeah. The Speaker 2 (6:09) film that it reminded me of briefly in spots because it's