I Dug 'Digger'

Tom Cruise – likely psychopath, face of an extremely dangerous cult, complicit in a lot of human suffering, and the last pure movie star – has gone through several distinct eras. Following his astronomical initial ascent, he spent the 1980s and 1990s alternating between blockbusters and working with the most notable living auteurs – Scorsese, Levinson, Stone, Howard, Reiner, Pollack. In the 2000s, he became fixated on trying to land a competitive Oscar while still retaining his tentpoles where necessary: acclaimed performances for Kubrick, Spielberg, P.T. Anderson, Cameron Crowe, and Michael Mann were interspersed with Missions Impossible and self-lampooning cameos like Goldmember and Tropic Thunder.

When his cred took a blow due to couch-hopping and general weirdness in the 2000s, the underperformances (relative to Tom Cruise movies, anyway) of passion projects like The Last Samurai and Valkyrie followed by general disinterest in Oblivion and the criminally underrated Edge of Tomorrow and American Made were paired with the coup de grace of the disaster that was The Mummy and the subsequent collapse of whatever grand plans were envisioned for The Dark Universe. Thus, Cruise spent the bulk of the last ten years focusing on the Mission Impossible franchise and returning to Top Gun in pursuit of his one true dream: dying on camera.

After receiving an honorary Oscar, however, it appears the dream of a competitive Academy Award has once again turned Cruise's head. He joined up with four-time Academy Award winner Alejandro González Iñárritu for the sprawling farce Digger, which had a PR awards push the likes of which we've never seen before, which began MONTHS before the release of the film, with this teaser, announcing Cruise returning to REAL movies with REAL directors.

That was followed, around the time of the re-release of Top Gun, with one of the most bonkers and expensive trailers I've ever seen, which was TOM CRUISE THE ACTOR THE TRAILER:

Above all else, the vibe I got from all of these trailers was that Digger was Iñárritu's attempt at a Kubrick-style satire in the vein of Dr. Strangelove. If you haven't had any of the finer points of Digger spoiled for you, I'm loath to do so here, as I had the key inflection point spoiled for me beforehand and I wish I hadn't, so I must demur. But I will say that my initial assumption was more or less correct. If there's one thing Iñárritu isn't, it's subtle. He makes big, weird, loud movies, and if you go into Digger expecting it to be big and weird, you're prepared for the correct vibes.

I'm personally stunned that this film is SO polarizing, but I think a lot of that probably has to do with its marketing campaign, which insists upon itself, but mostly insists upon Cruise. While I was tickled pink by Cruise and Iñárritu's teams being so unashamed of going bobbing for Oscars, it was almost certainly the wrong move. The thing about Tom Cruise is that he already insists upon himself; you don't need to gild the lily. While the movie is something approaching a masterpiece (again, if you're willing to meet it at its vibe), the circumstances surrounding Digger reek of desperation, and desperation is never cool. For Cruise, whose entire career is built upon being cool, that's a problem. You can make yourself uncool in a role, and he's done so many times (Collateral, Magnolia, Rock of Ages, and so on), but when you make the pretense uncool, nobody wins.

Anyway, I thought the movie was a triumph and is easily Iñárritu's best to date. Cruise gives an absolute whopper of a performance, as painstakingly advertised, and it will be a shame if he and John Goodman whiff on even receiving nominations as a result of the studio's own over-insistence on the full-court press. (Riz Ahmed, Michael Stuhlbarg and Jesse Plemons are also all phenomenal, but that's a real "water is wet" situation.)

Word is that after Digger, Cruise was prepared to embark on a new era of joining with today's leading auteurs to kick off a new epoch of award spelunking, but following the belly-flop of Digger's release, the only things that are hard-confirmed are the head-scratching sequel to Days of Thunder and the eventual Top Gun 3. And while I'm never going to be upset at more Tom Cruise-produced thrill-seeking actioners, it's too bad that we may not see him at the forefront of films from directors like Wes Anderson, Christopher Nolan, Stephen Soderbergh, David Fincher, Denis Villeneuve, Ryan Coogler, Greta Gerwig, Noah Baumbach, and on and on. But maybe he will! Right after he's done teaming with SpaceX to film a movie entirely in space, where he definitely won't explode in history's most foreseeable and preventable tragedy.

Anyway, if you can handle a weird one, go see Digger. Check your expectations at the door and enjoy the ride.