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.

 

The Portable Door: Unevenly framed

The Portable Door (2023) • View trailer

Three stars (out of five). Not rated, and suitable for all ages

Available via: Amazon Prime

By Derrick Bang

First impressions can be crucial, and this film’s first act is needlessly messy.

 

Director Jeffrey Walker’s initially frantic, quasi-slapstick tone is matched by performances that are all over the place; one gets a sense that everybody involved is desperate to prove that This Movie Will Be Fun.

 

Paul (Patrick Carpenter) and Sophie (Sophie Wilde) realize they're in a lot of trouble,
after being dumped into a huge, door-laden sub-level of J.W. Welles & Co.

The resulting impression instead veers toward exasperation, and viewers are likely to give up after about 20 minutes. That would be a shame, because — once Walker and his cast settle down — this larkish fantasy becomes much more palatable.

Leon Ford’s screenplay is adapted from British author Tom Holt’s 2003 novel of the same title, first in what has become his eight-book (and counting) “J.W. Wells & Co.” series, referencing the venerable London firm where mysterious doings take place.

 

Our entry point, as this film begins, is Paul Carpenter (Patrick Gibson), a hapless failure-to-launch who is light-years away from getting his life together. Reduced to seeking employment at a local café, his attempt to do so is interrupted by a string of coincidences: His alarm doesn’t go off, his trousers have a stain, his shoelace breaks — twice — and his toaster blows up. 

 

When Paul finally reaches the queue of would-be baristas hoping for the same job, he’s distracted by an enthusiastic “Great to see you again!” from a jovial fellow who claims to have been one of his university professors — but whom Paul doesn’t recognize —and then by a scruffy little dog that steals his scarf.

 

Paul’s attempt to retrieve the scarf terminates in an alley — the dog having vanished — just outside a partially open door marked “Applicants.” This turns out to be a side entrance to J.W. Wells & Co., where Paul finds himself on a couch alongside the well-appointed and rudely stuffy Sophie Pettingel (Sophie Wilde), one of apparently several individuals angling for an intern’s slot.

 

To Paul’s surprise, he’s summoned next — by name — by middle manager Dennis Tanner (Sam Neill), for an odd interview led by CEO Humphrey Wells (Christoph Waltz). Additional board members Nienke Van Spee (Rachel House), Countess Judy (Miranda Otto) and Casimir Suslowicz (Chris Pang) observe silently. Everybody looks sadly amused by this obviously under-talented applicant, until Paul mentions the series of odd coincidences that led to his presence.

 

And, just like that, Paul is hired, to begin immediately … despite his lack of worthwhile skills. He soon learns that J.W. Wells is a wonderland of weird: Van Spee’s hair has a life of its own; receptionist Rosie Tanner (Jessica De Gouw) seems unusually fond of a stapler; and a baby dragon can be spotted at odd moments.