Billionaires suck in bad sweaters

Since “billionaires suck” is a theme at the movies, I guess it’s a theme on the site today too. Because it’s a theme in real life – all around us billionaires and their billionaire decisions have had an impact on our communities, how we live and how we work. And pop culture has always been a reflection of humanity, in this case how the inhumane are actively destroying it. On the off chance you think this is hyperbolic, catch up on the Jacob Coxon story that broke yesterday.

Anyyyyyyway, let’s get back to film and one of the many “billionaires suck” films due out this fall trying to carve out some space on the awards circuit. I namechecked it in today’s site open and literally half an hour after they released a new trailer for Alejandro G Iñárritu’s Digger starring Tom Cruise… whose name they have to show in the biggest font possible, “TOM CRUISE”, because they’re worried he won’t be recognisable to the audience under all that makeup and prosthetics etc etc etc.

Tom Cruise’s Digger wears a lot of bad sweaters. Hilariously bad sweaters. Sweaters that are hilariously bad on purpose and meant to be remarked upon – which is part of the bigger point, everything is obvious so far about this movie, subtlety is not what they’re going for. Then again, you don’t cast Tom Cruise if you’re looking for subtle.

Digger, both the film and the character, looks unhinged by design. Iñárritu has already said that the idea here is that humans are the disaster, that the apocalypse won’t happen because of a meteor or a storm or an alien invasion but that the worst threat to humanity is humanity itself, embodied not just by Tom Cruise as Digger but the loser asshole sycophant power broker boardroom f-cks who are sharing the table with him. Like I said, not subtle.

The opposite of not subtle is a big swing – and that’s what I appreciate here, that they seem to be going balls to the wall batsh-t here, no limits, no holding back. And I suppose if you’re satirising the billionaire class, a cohort with unrestrained greed, ambition, ego, whose capacity for empathy is non-existent, mirroring the storytelling style to their callous and unbridled approach to everything, including the destruction of the planet, is one way to do it.

The question right now is will it find an audience. Even though this is TOM CRUISE in ALL CAPS, I’m not sure Digger is getting the buzz that they’re hoping for. The budget for the film is reportedly in excess of $125 million and box office projections a month out aren’t great. That doesn’t necessarily speak to the quality of the film itself, it’s more about whether or not people want to see it and if they’ll get it, as on-the-nose as it is. Already there are comparisons to Dr Strangelove, a black comedy that came out at a time when critical thinking was still encouraged and nuance was still present in discourse. Can modern audiences engage with this kind of film in the way that the filmmakers are hoping for? Speaking of discourse, what will Tom Cruise be talking about as he promotes this film? He hasn’t been on a press tour like this in a long time that doesn’t involve stunts and running. But he is definitely, at least for now, in the running for an Oscar nomination.

On the festival circuit so far, though, several actors have thrown down some formidable performances – in addition to Ryan Gosling and Matt Damon who are in the mix for best actor with Project Hail Mary and The Odyssey, John Malkovich has emerged as a frontrunner in Wild Horse Nine, and also Andrew Scott in Elsinore, and John Turturro in The Only Living Pickpocket in New York. Andrew Garfield, Robert Pattinson, Sebastian Stan, and Jack O’Connell are on the list too. It’s a crowded field that Tom Cruise has to break through.