Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu champions comedy in his film ‘Digger’
Por Miriam Gonzalez ·
Alejandro González Iñárritu has found in comedy a way to address power, ambition, and human contradictions, even when a climate catastrophe serves as the backdrop, as he believes that humor is “the only way” to bring people together “in such a fragmented world,” he says in an interview with EFE about ‘Digger.’
“Humor ultimately helps us connect emotionally, without prejudice, to something that works for everyone, and that’s where we can all see ourselves (…) humor helps us find ourselves,” he adds.
The film, starring Tom Cruise, marks Iñárritu’s return following *Bardo, False Chronicle of a Few Truths* (2022), a semi-autobiographical and surrealist film in which the Mexican filmmaker explored his experience as a Mexican in the United States and his love-hate relationship with both countries.
Now, the director does not shy away from his critical view of this country, but rather expands upon it. ‘Digger’ explores the crisis of legitimacy surrounding Rockwell, an oil tycoon who, after unleashing a global ecological catastrophe, embarks on a desperate race to prove that he is still the savior and not the culprit, within a system of power that allows him to do so.
In the movie, Rockwell’s negligence triggers an ecological disaster: an iceberg breaks off and heads toward Europe, posing an imminent threat to millions of people around the world.
For Iñárritu, however, climate change is merely the backdrop, not the subject. “I think it’s about nature, but it’s about human nature,” says the director, a two-time Oscar winner for ‘Birdman’ (2014) and ‘The Revenant’ (2015).
A nearly unrecognizable Cruise lays out the problem to the highest-ranking U.S. officials, and after analyzing the various options for resolving the conflict, they conclude that the most important thing is to control the narrative.
“It’s a ‘disaster movie,’ but we are the disaster. The way we deal with and struggle against reality, the way we tell our stories to justify ourselves, to achieve our goals at the expense of others,” the director reflects.
The only thing that suggests the tycoon is human is the boundless love he feels for his cat.
The resemblance to the reality in the United States is evident—and even unsettling: the disaster is covered up by a government led by President Compson, played by John Goodman, a dying, authoritarian leader who, in more ways than one, seems to evoke more than a few of the recent occupants of the White House.
“Digger” is an unpredictable film poised for awards season
As in every Iñárritu film, the story isn’t quite what it seems: the director once again plays with the layers between reality and representation—a technique he previously explored in *Birdman*—and has a twist in store that completely changes how everything that came before is interpreted.
Against the backdrop of that story, the director insists that the real theme transcends the plot: “It’s the oldest story ever told; it’s about power, it’s about insatiable human ambition, about blindness—and to me, it’s absurd, it’s moving, and, thanks to cinema, deeply hilarious—it’s a lot of fun to watch ourselves and recognize just how absurd we humans can be.”
The film also marks the return of Emmanuel “El Chivo” Lubezki to an Iñárritu project since *The Revenant* (2015), and it shows: shot in VistaVision format, its cinematography has been praised by the film press, which is already tipping it as a contender for some of the most prestigious awards.
“Digger,” which opens on October 2, has received mixed reviews from critics, although they agree in highlighting Cruise’s transformation and Iñárritu’s satirical touch, according to Agencia EFE.
Here you can watch the trailer for the movie “Digger,” directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu.