Tom Cruise Bloviates His Way Through the Aggressively Unfunny Digger

Digger was cowritten by Iñárritu, Sabina Berman, Alexander Dinelaris Jr., and Nicolás Giacobone, from a story by Iñárritu, Berman, and Jez Butterworth, a too-many-cooks equation if ever there were one. The movie has the peculiar distinction of being both all over the place and laser-focused on its dumb premise; too bad there isn’t an Oscar for that. The play-within-a-movie conceit is just an excuse to show off enormous, elaborate sets-within-the-set: One of the massive picture windows in Digger’s mansion becomes a frame for a stand of miniature trees, tended to by stage-hand giants; it’s a cool effect—and yet, so what? There are quite a few actors here you’ll recognize, including an ashen-looking John Goodman—he plays the president of the United States, and his chief function is to boom loudly about the “cancer of the asshole” from which he suffers. Jesse Plemons plays a member of the play’s audience, a man with a secret and a very bad haircut, though he has only a few brief scenes. Occasionally, Sandra Hüller drifts through the movie as if searching for another, better picture that might actually give her something to do. For those who enjoy gazing into cavernous nostrils, there are lots of grotesque low-angle closeups. These performers deserve combat pay.