The Reel Rejects - DIGGER NON SPOILER REVIEW!! Tom Cruise | Aejandro G. Iñárritu | Out of Theatre Reaction

Starting point is 00:00:01 you want a vision. I was an Avenger, but I'm not a hero anymore. On October 14th, the Vision returns for the final chapter of the groundbreaking trilogy. That family wasn't real. You sure about that? I had a father called Vision. How is this possible? Don't miss the two-episode premiere of Marvel Television's Vision Quest.

Starting point is 00:00:23 Nothing bonds a family together quite like Mortal Jeopardy. Streaming October 14th, only on Disney Plus. So I just saw the new movie Digger starring Thomas the Cruz here at the beautiful Grove in Los Angeles, California, where they're currently playing much copyrighted music. I should probably move so this video doesn't get taken down. Just look at it. Look at the scenery really quick. Look at that. Faint, fainz. All right, so Digger stars Sir Thomas Cruz Lines as the titular Digger, and is directed by Alejandro Gonzalez in Yaditu, whose name you probably recognize from films such as Birdman. And The Revenant and 21 grams, other stuff as well.

Starting point is 00:01:03 You can look him up on IMDB. But yeah, this is a movie with a lot of, you know, talk surrounding it. It certainly looks like a big old swing for Tom Cruise, who has been living it up in these high stakes action flicks, but hasn't done, you know, some capital C cinema really stretched his acting legs in a while. So that's exciting to see.

Starting point is 00:01:26 This is also, you know, if you've seen the trailer, going for a tone, not unlike that of, say, Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove. It's like the main movie I've heard, you know, called out in relation to this one. But yeah, it's hard to talk about this movie, to be honest with you, to be frank. There's a lot to it that is not revealed in the trailer. Yes. Is it a secret musical? I cannot say.

Starting point is 00:01:55 That is for you to discover. So I'm going to do my best to tiptoe around the specifics of this movie. If you want to hear some more in-depth thoughts that go into some of the more detailed aspects, you can tune in tomorrow at the time of this posting. Koi and I will be live in the afternoon doing a spoiler. Talk about Digger and the rest of the week's news, probably around noon or so. So come on out. Bring us your burning questions and your interpretations and whatever else.

Starting point is 00:02:24 but I'm gonna do my best to just give you some off the dome thoughts in the vaguest sense. I'll reference some things with the trailer, but that's about it. So yeah, Digger. What is it about? Thomas Cruz plays Digger, like I said. He is an old money oil tycoon who loves his cat, and also has just discovered that he may be responsible for one of the most devastating man-made disasters in human history. Now he's got to clean that shit up. up. From that premise ensues a sort of madcap, dark, socio-eco-political, farcical comedy satire

Starting point is 00:03:04 of sorts. Featuring an ensemble that includes John Goodman, Riz Ahmed, Sandra Heller from Project Hail Mary, Michael Stoolbarg, Jesse Plemans, I believe, is in the trailer, and I'm going to stop there because I don't frankly remember. Now, chances are, if you've heard anything about this movie, it's probably one of three things. You may have heard that this is a masterpiece. You may have heard that this is pretentious art crap and you possibly may have heard that this is like liberal propaganda trying to get you to buy solar panels and some shit i don't necessarily gravitate toward any of those assessments necessarily i will say that i do gravitate toward movies like this this is the kind of thing i would generally be interested in i do appreciate a swing i like

Starting point is 00:03:45 seeing something a little bit outside the box uh shit just got real i enjoy movies that are absurd and surreal and take a little time to process and that contain, you know, surprises or hidden elements or whatever else. But those elements don't necessarily guarantee a good movie. It's a fun assignment, but you still have to achieve that assignment. I'm going to start with whether or not I liked this generally, because again, this is a hard movie to come out of with any kind of succinct and fully formed opinion that's just ready to go, as I am attempting to do right now. But yeah, I would say that in the afterglow here and now, I find myself appreciating things about the movie. It's not deteriorating in my mind, and that's a good start.

Starting point is 00:04:28 The more I think about this, the more I like it, and I would say that I am generally Team Digger. I think this is pretty interesting. I found the artistry and artifice both stimulating in equal measure, and for someone who doesn't always love in Yari 2's stuff, like I always appreciate it. But some of his movies leave me cold, certainly. some of the ones that people really love, leave me cold, if I'm being frank. But past all the big makeup and the big personalities and, again, the sort of socio-political milieu of everything, I did find myself engaging with this movie on an emotional level I wasn't expecting. This is a sadder movie than I imagined going in at the heart of things once it really

Starting point is 00:05:06 starts to unfold and reveal itself. I think this plays really well to Tom Cruise's strengths and his range. I know he's not an actor that gets credited a lot with having a bunch of range, but, um, you know, the exaggerated, you know, larger than life, almost foghorn, leghorn-esque character that Digger, uh, Rockwell is, is a lot of fun. It's like, what if Oppenheimer, but less Grossman, you know what I mean? But also, the movie does have dimension to it, and it does allow him to play some subtler tones, some more heartfelt tones, and I like to see that, man. I thought This was a really cool showing for Tom Cruise. I really appreciate him committing to this.

Starting point is 00:05:48 Bonkers treatise on truth and delusion and the ways in which we just deny the natural world in favor of our own ends, even when those ends are destructive and perhaps even impossible to begin with. But the standout for me, aside from Tom Cruise, is easily Riz Ahmed. I enjoyed watching him so much across. this movie and in a movie full of, you know, big, broad, committed performances. I did think that his energy really found the perfect sort of pitch in the midst of all the other chaos. He is one of the more sensible characters on screen. Not that anybody is 100% pure of heart here. Also, Jesse Plemins, he's not the biggest character in the movie, but left an impression, as he always does. Oddly warm for him, which is just nice.

Starting point is 00:06:41 Let That Boy Live. This is a movie with a lot of craft going into it as well. The cinematography by Emmanuel Lebeske is gorgeous. There's a lot of that signature natural light look on display, as well as these super wide-angle lenses that both let you drink in these palatial meeting rooms and dining halls and weird bunkers and things that the movie takes place in, generally speaking. along with the sort of exaggerated caricatured emotions of the characters on display. Our screening was in a sort of iMacs kind of squared off ratio.

Starting point is 00:07:19 Call Adam Havoc at Heroes Reforged, if you want the full breakdown on that. This was apparently shot in VistaVision, so that's fun. But yeah, I love the look of this. The production design is really gorgeous and expressive. You know, it kind of morphs as the movie goes along and responds to the energy and the situations within and surroundings. This is also a film that employs a lot of interesting, both classic and modern filmmaking techniques

Starting point is 00:07:46 to achieve its specific timbre of this odd dystopian world. The music as well is not wall to wall, but very interesting. We get what sounds like birdsong at certain points, things that sound like running or dripping water, along with elements of brass and various percussion and things like that. movie has a lot of vibes, a lot of aura. I did think it was quite funny at times, and yes, it does have a certain amount of its mind on ecology and the climate. And if that's the kind of thing that upsets you just off the bat, I mean, you've probably written your angry comment and left

Starting point is 00:08:22 already, so you know what you're getting into or not. But yeah, as a person who generally loves and cares about planet Earth and would love a collective effort to treat it better, I thought this movie did a fun job of litigating that from different absurdist angles, as well as the ways in which, you know, truth is harvested and warped and redistributed to, you know, enforce narratives that prop up various institutions that may or may not have anyone's best interest in any frame of mind. This is definitely a skewering of the powers that be and the people who run the world and the various, you know, heads of this. different branches of government and military and culture and science. So we also has a fair amount to say about the concept of political theater and the way in which we sort of bargain and converse with our own history, as well as the cathartic truths to be found in fiction and in rationalizing our experiences through fiction.

Starting point is 00:09:23 Is there a political element, of course? And do I think this movie is deep and do I think this movie's political aspirations succeed. That's the stuff I'm going to have to go back and look more at. Go back into code on second viewing or just in discussing the film with other synophiles. You know, that's the fun of a movie like this. If you're willing to have fun with it, if it's the kind of thing you think you might have fun with, comparing and contrasting to both your ideals in terms of art and in terms of life, because this movie is doing a lot of both. And if you hate pretentious art shit, you're probably gonna hate this, but, you know, I don't necessarily think this is pretentious art shit.

Starting point is 00:10:04 If you're interested at all, I think it's worth at least a try, because again, this is a big old piece of art, and a lot of people are working outside their comfort zone and having fun, but also really orchestrating something that is kind of breathtaking in its own uniquely boisterous, surreal, and impassioned way. Even just talking about this and kind of mulling it over in my head right now is still, emulating me in a good way. It's making me excited to talk with Koi about it and it's making me excited just to share it with other people and I think like that all just bodes well like generally speaking. I would say I like this movie. I would say I maybe even liked it a lot. Is it a masterpiece? I'm not sure yet. I can't say that just coming out of this theater right now even though the algorithm wants me to Yeah, in a nutshell. I really enjoyed my initial experience watching Digger. This is definitely in part the movie you have seen as advertised in the trailer. There's more to it as well. And I think a lot of the most interesting stuff is indie as well. Not that I wasn't again

Starting point is 00:11:07 into and ready for the movie they were pitching us, but also I'm glad to find that there is more. Another movie I've heard this compared to is don't look up. And that's a movie I don't actively dislike, but I get why people do. And I think this movie, not to, you know, slag that one, but I think Digger has a fair amount more dimension going for it and as maybe, I know a certain amount of people are going to feel like this movie is very self-satisfied and perhaps it is, but not so much that it dismantled the experience for me. That's kind of how I feel about Birdman.

Starting point is 00:11:42 I'm really sorry. I know people love it. I want to love it too. I'm sorry. You know spiritually with a movie like this when you're vibing with it and when you're not. And it didn't make me want to rage quit. It's got me excited to revisit it and to, you know, see what else I might be able to glean from it or what else I might get a kick out of or whatever.

Starting point is 00:12:01 And I'm really excited to break it down and get into the nitty gritty with Koi and the rest of you guys tomorrow or in the past. Most likely for a lot of you. Anyway, leave us your thoughts on Digger, gang. Are you seeing the movie this weekend? Do you think it looks amazing? Do you think it looks like a piece of crap? Let us know. I hope it...

Starting point is 00:12:21 I don't know. I'm just happy stuff like this exists and gets to exist and that, you know, weird, big old art piece, passion projects happened still in the year of Our Lord 2026. Anyway, yeah. Tom Cruise, man. Bye.

The Reel Rejects - DIGGER NON SPOILER REVIEW!! Tom Cruise | Aejandro G. Iñárritu | Out of Theatre Reaction

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