Digger
Digger is a brilliant piece of art that fails in some crucial areas, such as, but not limited to, humor and watchability. That isn’t to say it’s not funny. There are some good comedy moments, but a lot of what was intended to be funny doesn’t land. In terms of watchability, there ARE many scenes that because they’re not as funny as they were intended to be, they’re also just not interesting. I’m going to try not to spoil anything plot related, so I’ll try to talk about it generally, but there is a straightforward satire that is presented to you in the trailers, and then behind that is a meta-satire of something different. And that world where the meta-satire is, is just pretty dull, and elements of it feel convoluted, or strong-armed to serve that meta-satire. That may not make sense until you watch it, unfortunately, but understand two things - the surface level of the movie fails at times and is probably a 6/10, but underneath is a completely genius social commentary that makes Digger a must watch movie for the year and is a 10/10. So, like many great pieces of art, it’s complicated. I read early in the year that this movie would give Tom Cruise his first ever Oscar win, and given what we’ve seen so far from the other contenders, just give Tom the Oscar already. He’s absolutely electric as Digger, and delivers a truly iconic monologue in this movie, on one of the coolest set designs of the year, and it is something I’ll never forget.
-Z
While it was definitely better than the Metacritic score it earned, I still was not overly impressed with this film. Undeniably, Tom Cruise is great in this (as expected), and the set design was very immersive, but I think the plot was trying to cover too much ground. We all agreed that some parts just needed to be cut for this to focus on the more interesting storyline, and I felt like the last third of the movie really drug on and on. It just all felt really messy, which is a shame because I can see a world where this is so so much better put together.
-E
It is funny how reviews work sometimes. Z and E love looking at the Metascore before a movie, and I would prefer not to. This is an example as to why. It has terrible reviews and was almost skipped by us, to where the movie was actually pretty decent. The score, cinematography, and acting were the best parts - which you would then assume it was a good movie, but I struggled with the ‘why.’ In a lot of ways it was too on the nose and had portions where it runs into a weird dynamic that I don’t fully understand. I know that seems vague, but it has to be to keep it spoiler free. I understand why some hate it and others will like it, but I would recommend seeing it to make your decision, don't rely on other reviews because I think this will hit people in different ways.
-J
