Digger: A provocatively grim satire

Digger (2026) • View trailer

Four stars (out of five); rated R, for relentless profanity

Available via: Movie theaters

By Derrick Bang • Published in The Davis Enterprise, 10.11.26

This film is for folks who felt that 2021’s Don’t Look Up was insufficiently cynical and depressing.

 

Director Alejnadro G. Iñárritu’s dark-dark-dark comedy is highlighted by a bravura performance by Tom Cruise, successfully operating leagues out of his usual wheelhouse.

 

Despite his best reasoned, well-researched arguments, U.S. Environmental Safety Chief
Dr. Nirav Ganesh (Riz Ahmed, left) is unable to persuade oil tycoon Digger Rockwell
(Tom Cruise) that his massive oil extraction operations are dangerous.

The result is a brutally bleak cautionary saga that hits the target because so much of its script — by Iñárritu, Alexander Dinelaris, Nicolás Giacobone, Sabina Berman and Jez Butterworth — is an uncomfortably accurate reflection of contemporary, real-world behavior by out-of-control power brokers.

It's also a disconcerting parable about the potentially calamitous results of stubbornly rash behavior by one authoritarian individual, unchecked by compliant government entities. (Sound familiar?)

 

On top of which, the horrifying “gimmick” revealed, during this saga’s second and third acts, is so clever that it shall not be discussed here.

 

But consider this analogy: What if Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove had been made 20 years after an actual global nuclear catastrophe, with the intent of allowing the survivors of our forever poisoned planet the cathartic opportunity to witness and jeer the venal, selfish and idiotic behavior of those who had caused the crisis?

 

With that in mind...

 

Iñárritu opens on a typical morning in the life of aging, overweight and jowly oil magnate Digger Rockwell (Cruise, all but unrecognized beneath astonishing makeup and prosthetics). Within seconds, we understand that this man is accustomed to always getting his way. On this particular morning, he’s concerned solely with his beloved but very, veryold and ailing cat: little more than bones and tufts of white fur.

 

The cat looks “off,” and behaves quite strangely. (Hold that thought.)

 

Iñárritu’s handling of these early scenes — and all that follow — is disorienting, bizarre and off-putting. Oscar-winning cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki’s color palette is muted, bereft of bright colors; everything seems washed-out, as if saturated by a dull brown fog. (Impatient viewers might be inclined to give up. Don’t.)

 

A visit from world-renowned veterinarian Dr. Berg (Ross Hart) proves as unsatisfying as the insistence — by Emma (Sandra Hüller), Digger’s half-sister and business partner — that mercy should be granted the poor creature. 

 

This decision is set aside when Digger gets some seriously bad news.

 

Project Hail Mary: Overcooked

Project Hail Mary (2026) • View trailer

3.5 stars (out of five); rated PG-13, for dramatic intensity and fleeting suggestive references

Available via: Movie theaters

By Derrick Bang • Published in The Davis Enterprise, 3.22.26

This sci-fi epic has much to admire: two nail-biting challenges woven into an unsettling premise; well-sculpted characters brought to life by a top-notch cast; sensational special effects; and occasional dollops of cheeky humor.

 

Alone aboard an interstellar starship, filled with unanswered questions concerning a
mission he doesn't fully remember, Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) is further surprised
by something entirely unexpected.

All of which are sabotaged, because co-directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller overwhelm everything with unrelenting blasts of Daniel Pemberton’s overloud score, with its bombastic droning synth and weird choral touches.

This pounding, so-called “music” pretty much ruins the film.

 

What the heck were Lord and Miller thinking?

 

In some ways, this film — adapted by Drew Goddard, from sci-fi author Andy Weir’s 2021 novel of the same title — feels like a third-generation descendent of 1968’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. But director Stanley Kubrick knew how to use music ... and, more importantly, what kind of music, and when not to use it, thereby allowing the unfolding story to speak for itself.

 

Even so, this saga’s hook is a corker. Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) wakens abruptly, and uncomfortably, in some sort of cocoon. After thrashing his way out, frightened by the autoboots attempting to help, he stumbles aboard what we realize is some sort of deep-space ship. But Grace has amnesia: no idea how he got here, and initially not even who he is. 

 

To make matters worse, he discovers that his only two shipmates — also cocooned — are dead, something having failed in their life-support system.

 

Grace is alone. And terrified.

 

His memory returns in fits and starts, establishing the many flashbacks that eventually supply answers; these continue to be intercut, throughout the entire film, with Grace’s ongoing present-day predicament.

 

He recalls being a junior high school science teacher, beloved by his students, one of whom hits him with an uncomfortable question. We thus learn of the “Petrova line” of particles radiating from our Sun to Venus, draining the former’s intensity. Unless something is done, the dimming heat will plunge Earth into a catastrophic ice age within 30 years.

 

Grace is approached by Eva Stratt (Sandra Hüller), accompanied by stern government types who include Carl (Lionel Boyce). Stratt, who introduces herself as the head of a multinational task force assembled to solve the problem, knows Grace’s back-story: He’s a brilliant molecular biologist blackballed after boldly insisting that one of his field’s leading researcher’s work is stuffed full of wild blueberry muffins.

 

The Zone of Interest: Horrifying, but flawed

The Zone of Interest (2023) • View trailer

3.5 stars (out of five). Rated PG-13, for dramatic intensity and disturbing content

Available via: Movie theaters

By Derrick Bang

Given the alarming rise of antisemitism and Holocaust denial during the past several years, this film’s arrival couldn’t be more timely. Academy voters obviously thought so, and granted it five Oscar nominations.

 

Rudolf (Christian Friedel, standing far left, dressed in white) and his family invite friends
for an afternoon romp in his wife's carefully nurtured garden, all of them oblivious to
what takes place on the other side of the barbed-wire-topped wall at one edge
of their property.

Director/scripter Jonathan Glazer’s extremely loose adaptation of Martin Amis’ 2014 novel is undoubtedly one of the most chilling and memorably haunting movies ever made: an unusual Holocaust story which — like long-ago radio dramas — derives its power from what it makes us imagine.

Amis based his novel’s cold-blooded villain, Paul Doll, on Auschwitz concentration camp commandant Rudolf Höss; Glazer boldly draws directly from history in his depiction of the actual Rudolf (Christian Friedel), his wife Hedwig (Sandra Hüller), their five boisterous children, and the bucolic setting in which they live.

 

“Bucolic,” only by force of disregard.

 

The year is 1943. Glazer opens his film on a charming pastoral scene, as Rudolf and his family are joined by friends for a riverbank picnic. (Actually, this isn’t how the film begins, but I’ll get back to that.) 

 

Everybody returns home after an enjoyable day of sun, splashing in the water, and convivial conversation. Rudolf and his family live in a charming multi-story villa, their every need tended by quietly obedient young women. Hedwig delights in the Edenic garden she has nurtured behind their home, with the assistance of numerous workmen.

 

Glazer stages these outdoor scenes against the tall, barbed-wire-topped concrete wall that runs the length of their property: the most grisly theater backdrop ever imagined, with unspeakable horrors taking place behind this stage’s metaphorical closed curtain. 

 

(The 40-square-kilometer area immediately surrounding the Auschwitz concentration camp was designated by the Nazi SS as interessengebiet: the “zone of interest.” Höss and his family did indeed live therein, alongside the camp.)

 

Glazer calmly, clinically — relentlessly — depicts the banality of the day-by-day Höss family life. Hedwig shows flowers and buzzing bees to their infant daughter. Younger son Hans (Luis Noah Witte) plays with toy soldiers and occasionally beats a toy drum; his sisters Heidetraut (Lilli Falk) and Inge-Brigitt (Nele Ahrensmeier) cavort in the small swimming pool their father built, complete with wooden slide.

 

We can’t call their behavior denial; that’s too easy. It’s actually indifference. While evil comes in many forms, casualevil arguably is the worst.

I'm Your Man: Absorbing parable on the nature of humanity

I'm Your Man (2021) • View trailer

Four stars (out of five). Rated R, for sexual candor and profanity

Available via: Hulu and other streaming services

By Derrick Bang

I love intelligent, quietly thoughtful sci-fi films: an increasingly rare commodity in this era of Star Wars, Star Trek and all manner of superhero movies.

 

Although ostensibly a genre devoted to science and speculative advancement, the best examples focus on how futuristic technology impacts the human condition.

 

Anna (Maren Eggert) isn't wild about introducing Tom (Dan Stevens) to her museum
research team ... but she prefers this to leaving him alone in her apartment.

2009’s Moon comes to mind, as does 2014’s Ex Machina.

Director Maria Schrader’s Ich bin dein Mensch — released here in the States as I’m Your Man — belongs in their company. This disarmingly beguiling little drama is one of 15 films short-listed for this year’s International Feature Film Oscar. And deservedly so.

 

The script — by Schrader and Jan Schomburg, based on a short story by Emma Braslavsky — is by turns ingenious, whimsical, poignant and remarkably insightful. All concerned have concocted a cheeky modern riff on the ancient Greek Pygmalion legend; the result is equal parts rom-com and shrewd philosophical musings on the nature of humanity.

 

The setting feels like modern-day Germany — in terms of clothing, cars and personal tech — but clearly is a bit in the future, given the story’s focus. We meet Alma Felser (Maren Eggert) as she nervously joins the crowd at what appears to be a posh speed-dating nightclub. She’s greeted by a “handler,” (Sandra Hüller), who in turn introduces her to Tom (Dan Stevens), apparently her companion for the evening.

 

It’s a shame to telegraph all the little ways in which this initial encounter goes oddly awry; not knowing the reason robs viewers of the delight to be experienced by Stevens’ impeccably nuanced and oddly balletic performance. Suffice to say that Tom tries much too hard to be gallant and charming, his fervent declarations of love and devotion far better suited to couples married for a decade or two, than a first “date” … if, indeed, that’s what this is.

 

But it isn’t. At least, not exactly.

 

Alma, in turn, clearly isn’t happy, doesn’t want to be here, behaves like a trapped rabbit. Eggert radiates wariness and discomfort, her guarded expression revealing a bit of condescension, if not outright contempt.

 

All becomes clear when Tom is revealed to be a meticulously crafted AI: human in appearance and — theoretically — behavior, down to the last detail. (Rest assured, matters eventually do get down to the last detail.) Alma is an archaeological research scientist at Berlin’s Pergamon Museum, specializing in deciphering ancient Mesopotamian cuneiform writing; she’s also one of 10 “experts” selected to evaluate the newest line of robots made by a never-specified corporation.

 

Her boss, Dekan (Falilou Seck), is part of an ethics committee that will determine the degree to which these … beings … are entitled to some (any?) of the protective rights that society grants its human members. Dekan has dangled a plum trip to Chicago — where Alma will be able to examine some key cuneiform tablets in person — as a means of securing her participation in this three-week trial.

 

To that end, and following Alma’s exhaustive earlier battery of tests and psychological evaluations, Tom has been designed as her “ideal man.” He’s to live with her for three weeks, after which she’ll render a final evaluation.

 

And, so, she brings him home. Very reluctantly.

Munich — The Edge of War: Persuasive period espionage

Munich — The Edge of War (2021) • View trailer

Four stars (out of five). Rated PG-13, for profanity, dramatic intensity and brief violence

Available via: Netflix

By Derrick Bang

British journalist-turned-novelist Robert Harris has written numerous works of suspenseful historical fiction, several of which have been transformed into equally tension-laden films; 2001’s Enigma and 2010’s The Ghost Writer immediately come to mind.

 

British Prime Minister Neville Chamerlain (Jeremy Irons, seated) goes over newspaper
reports of German activities with his aide and translator, Hugh Legat (George MacKay).

Director Christian Schwochow and scripter Ben Power have done an equally fine job with their adaptation of Munich. Their handling of this World War II-based nail-biter, thanks in great part to the way cinematographer Frank Lamm frames many of his shots, has the retro atmosphere of classic 1960s Cold War thrillers such as The Spy Who Came In from the Cold and The Ipcress File.

The result so cunningly blurs the line between fact and fiction, that it’s often difficult to determine which is which.

 

This story also has extremely disturbing parallels to current real-world events, which evoke Spanish philosopher George Santayana’s timeless quote: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

 

A brief prologue, set in 1932, introduces reserved Brit Hugh Legat (George MacKay) and passionate German Paul von Hartman (Jannis Niewöhner), who’ve bonded during their university years at Oxford. Both clearly love the impish Lenya (Liv Lisa Fries), although she’s probably too free-spirited for the buttoned-down Hugh.

 

Events shift to the autumn of 1938. Hugh has become a civil servant attached to British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain (Jeremy Irons), in offices also occupied by the latter’s principal private secretary, Sir Osmund Cleverly (Mark Lewis Jones); Permanent Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs Sir Alexander Cadogan (Nicholas Farrell); and senior government official Sir Horace Wilson (Alex Jennings).

 

(All, with the exception of Legat, are key historical figures.)

 

Paul has become a German diplomat and clandestine anti-Nazi. He and Hugh haven’t spoken or seen each other during the past several years (for reasons revealed in a later flashback).

 

Tension is high, because Adolf Hitler has mobilized forces at the Czech border, with the intention of claiming the Sudetenland, a region with 3 million Germans. Should this take place, the British and French will be forced to unite and defend the Czechs, plunging Europe into war.

 

With the horrors of World War I still fresh in every British citizen’s mind, this is not a desirable outcome.