I didn’t realize how truly divisive a filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu was before preparing to write this article. He’s one of the most decorated Mexican filmmakers in history, with four Academy Awards, three BAFTAs, four Golden Globes and a win for Best Director at Cannes, but it seems like most of his movies eventually suffer from some sort of backlash.
Because I am a man of apparently limitless free time, I decided to watch Iñárritu’s films chronologically before the release of his already massively divisive new film, and box-office flop, Digger. I don’t want to dive—dig?—too deeply because there is only room for so many words on these pages, but I definitely learned a few things about movies while watching Iñárritu’s filmography.
Among his more recent works, Birdman (2014, with Michael Keaton) sees Iñárritu try to discover a sense of humor, but somehow ends up more self-serious than ever before. Still, as a recovering theater kid, I love it unreservedly.
The Revenant (2015, with Leonardo DiCaprio) got Iñárritu a slew of awards and is a technical marvel, but doesn’t generate much emotional resonance or stay firmly lodged in the brain as a memorable piece of cinema.
Bardo (2022) is another beautifully directed and ultimately forgettable exercise in flashy, technically jaw-dropping filmmaking.
Watching these films in such a short window of time made me realize something key about Iñárritu as a filmmaker. His work with his editors, cinematographers and sound designers is second to none, making even the worst of his films feel like a sensory experience designed to place the viewers directly inside his meticulously crafted worlds. But at least Birdman aside, it’s almost like they’re designed for single-use viewing. I’ll never watch any of these movies again, but I’m glad I was able to experience them once.
With Iñárritu’s newest, Digger, we have something entirely different. A howlingly angry attack on the politicians who spitefully whistle their way through the graveyard as they find new ways to destroy the climate, individual freedoms and humanity as a whole. This movie spits in the face of those who light the atmosphere on fire and then make millions proclaiming that the sky is falling.
Digger is an obvious, unsubtle, ridiculous screed about the stupidity of humanity and, within 50 years, will be one of the most recognized, maybe even respected satires of the suicidal hubris of late-stage capitalism of our generation.
The trailers don’t reveal the actual structure and narrative of this film and I won’t spoil it here, but I will say that the majority of people who see this film will despise it. Digger will be much too weird for a general audience and nowhere near weird enough for critics and cinephiles like me. Tom Cruise chews the screen to pieces as Digger Rockwell, a wealthy oil tycoon whose aggressive oil extraction in Greenland has dislodged an ice shelf the size of Maryland, leading to a possible extinction-level event. Cruise will escape unscathed from this.
That’s only a small piece of what the film is actually about, as there are also layers of meta-storytelling, monologues on monologues that turn all the subtext into actual text, and a righteousness that is somehow both off-putting and completely justified. With this and with Bong Joon Ho’s Mickey 17, we have international filmmakers loudly exclaiming that America doesn’t deserve subtle satire because we wouldn’t understand it if they made it—and I can’t disagree with that in the slightest. We deserve a roasting at this point in our history.
But why are we loudly exclaiming that satire needs to be subtle in 2026? Dr. Strangelove doesn’t have a subtle bone in its body, bouncing between satire and farce like Mel Brooks could only dream. Network is arguably one of the finest, most groundbreaking satires in history and spells out its themes furiously. To earn subtle cinema, we have to prove our intelligence as a society. But obviousness doesn’t always mean simplicity, either.
Is Digger a good movie? Yeah, there’s something in there that’s pure and righteous and brilliant. It’s also an overindulgent mess that marries Iñárritu’s worst instincts as a storyteller with his best ones as a filmmaker. Regardless, I know it must be one of his best works because I will definitely watch it again, if only to understand exactly what he’s trying to say and why he is saying it in exactly the way he is.
The conversations around the movie might one day be more interesting than the movie itself, but that’s OK. For now, it’s what we deserve.
‘Digger’ is currently screening at True West Film Center, 371 Healdsburg Ave., truewestfilmcenter.org.
