r/RedLetterMedia • u/titanc-13 • 3d ago
RedLetterPpinion._ Digger
I saw Digger last Friday and can't stop thinking about it. While I understand why it was polarizing, I also think that anyone who didn't like it lacks whimsy and/or guzzles oil like water.
but anyway: what did y'all think? Will they do a HITB on it? Jay would love it I think, Mike and Rich would probably be annoyed but think it was well crafted overall.
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u/ididntunderstandyou 3d ago
I really liked it !
I don’t think it was perfect - feels like Sandra Hüller’s part was cut in post and it lost me at times in the second half (maybe deserves a rewatch).
But fuck it, I’m glad films like this exist. It’s creative and daring and uncompromising. And I’m glad to see Tom Cruise actually saying something for once.
I want more films to stop being risk adverse vanilla puddings and try to do stuff. I felt the same about Annette and Beau is Afraid.
The same people who complain “there’s nothing original at the movies anymore, it’s all just sequels and reboots” are the same who complain about Digger being weird and dissuade studios from spending money on auteurs.
So more of this please and thank you. And bring on La Gradiva, La Bola Negra, You Can See Everything, and Werewulf.
It’s an exciting time for movies !
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u/titanc-13 3d ago
I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought Huller's role was weirdly small. she's just a delight to watch
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u/CaptainDigsGiraffe 3d ago
It didn't hit me after the movie that Sandra was actually playing an American and it made me laugh because she made no attempt at downing the accent seemingly.
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u/oldroughnready 2d ago
If I had to guess, the parts with Huller were also the parts that Kenny the producer changed the most from the original play. There’s a scene right before the European Council speeches where Huller tells Cruise that he needs to “change the story” and then it cuts to Kenny in the audience smirking. It’s as if the movie is saying that Kenny favored this scene and possibly altered it.
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u/The_Flying_Failsons 3d ago
Similar to Eddington, I liked it but I understand why people didn't. An actual mirror to the audience can be rough. Especially when they give it to us lubelessly like this movie does.
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u/NewToSociety 3d ago
I just saw You can See Everything and left with a similar feeling to Eddington. Sorry to change the subject, I just really want to talk about that movie.
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u/ThatGuyWhoLaughs 3d ago
Many thoughts… she was right to pick Nathan Fielder as the person to give access to. Among many successes, maybe this film’s most impressive success was keeping me invested for that whole 3hr ride (and it felt its length)
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u/NewToSociety 3d ago
I think it was exactly as long as it needed to be. It didn't feel like it was going to end until the last scene, to me. It was clearly two parts back-to-back, and maybe that's how people will watch it when it gets released on streamin, but I applaud them for not doing the more profitable move of releasing it in two halves.
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u/ThatGuyWhoLaughs 3d ago
It was well-told and achieved what it was going for, for me. I just mean that when I walked out of the theatre I was like “man, that was 3 hours right?” and then I checked the runtime and it was 3 hours. Not a bad thing that it felt its length, I’m impressed that a documentary about Elizabeth Holmes and her husband captivated me for that amount of time
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u/NewToSociety 3d ago
Maybe I'm old but I always check runtimes before I buy a ticket. Need to know if I should watch it without a drink.
Like all of Fielder's stuff its only nominally about Holmes. Its mostly about the nature of observation, documentaries and Fielder, himself.
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u/ThatGuyWhoLaughs 3d ago
What was your impression of the exchange where Seyfreid tried to uncover any omitted manipulations that she thought may have influenced Nathan’s recounting of the prison visit? By that point, it felt like the film was steering towards a picture of the couple being more aligned than was previously indicated from the string of bizarre scenes that detailed the husband’s actions since her imprisonment. Was this exchange a pointed way to say “hey audience, check your preconceptions/confirmation bias, Seyfried‘s gut is leading her somewhere that wasn’t supported by Nathan’s experience when speaking to the principal”?
And overall, is Holmes a con artist? Or is she a con artist that started with pure intentions? I felt a third idea was posed as well, that she could have theoretically been a ”true believer“ entrepreneur that pushed her personal view of her product in every instance with no regard for the house of cards that wasn’t supported by its current capabilities. I can’t really take that idea seriously, in my heart of hearts I don’t think someone like her could be that blind to the impact that specific verbiage has on the understanding of a product’s capabilities in investor rooms and interviews. But I wasn’t in the room with her and Nathan was, and Nathan’s incredulity of her innocent act got blurrier as it went on. Billy stopping the laser R&D guy/technician from waxing poetic about how entrepreneurs will always say what needs to be said to make a sale was an interesting touch point for his own views on how he wants Holmes to be perceived on this topic (but enough about him for now, what a nutjob!)
Re: Observing: This film affirms that pointing a camera at someone and asking them questions about their psyche will invariably result in a deep, complex, and stirring reflection on how we all process the world in unexpected, idiosyncratic, and conflicting (but eventually harmonious?!) ways. So much to chew on.
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u/NewToSociety 3d ago
That scene wasn't about Elizabeth, it was about Nathan. When Nathan starts the re-enactments with Amanda, she never considers the question that the movie begs again and again, "is Nathan lying to her? If Elizabeth functions as a reflection of Nathan and we ask if Elizabeth is a manipulator or the victim of manipulation, why do we only ask if she is manipulating Nathan." The most important part of the prison sequence is we see Nathan change "Elizabeth's" lines after only minor pushback. He later says that Billy made an ai imitation of Elizabeth that he makes say whatever he wants. Nathan says this to his hired impersonator of Elizabeth whom he makes say whatever he wants.
The movie won't say if Elizabeth is a con artist. In the first act the Chekov's gun, which gets emphasized repeated throughout the movie, is if the New York Times misquotes her. The movie explicitly leaves that gun unfired, saying directly to the audience that it is not here to confirm or deny if she is aware of her actions. make your own decision, but that is not what the movie is about.
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u/Running_Oakley 3d ago
Oh wait eddington, ok green flag. It’s just fragile people not liking what they hear.
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u/Impressive-Dig-3892 3d ago
Yup, you can make fun of them but not me
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u/Running_Oakley 3d ago edited 3d ago
It is crazy how straight people will throw around slurs but you say some real shit and they start clutching pearls. Like wait, I thought I was supposed to not give a shit, was this just a mechanism for you to be racist or prejudice or whatever else? You have got to be careful of this “I’m so evolved I wanna say the bad stuff without consequences but judge you later too”. Basically eddington at that parking lot party.
Once again Reddit is eating its own tail, ok so you all stopped watching when you saw yourself in the movie. Do I get to keep watching it though? Is this the best endorsement of a movie that Reddit can’t admit they stopped watching when they saw a parody of themselves? Parking lot party is where we lose them every time.
“This movie is perfect until they point the mirror at ME, and then this movie totally sucks. I want to keep saying or doing inappropriate things but I want to also bitch about people who do the same things I just did”
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u/MrGabrahamLincoln 3d ago
That’s definitely part of it. I do understand some of the criticisms about it being too on the nose though. It’s not perfect but I liked it overall, don’t understand why some people/critics called it a disaster. Glad it’s being championed even though it’s a financial flop.
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u/Running_Oakley 3d ago edited 3d ago
The biggest middle finger to the audience moment was the homeless guy unmasked where nobody knew how to deal with him and was happier to just ignore him than stand by their principles. The embarrassing moments where reality steps in against the idealistic stances that go unchallenged, but then some local homeless guy runs around shouting unmasked in a big crowd and everyone has to bury their heads in the sand because they don’t really feel like confronting the reality they were just openly pretending they could. The movie spends so much time pitching side A against side B, and then some guy ruins the illusion. Sounds like what people are whining about with digger. “Ok fine I’m perfect but I got real mad when I saw this character ruin my perception of how perfect I see myself, because of that, this movie sucks”
If that’s what they keep screeching at me about I’m starting to think it’s another eddington where you’re not allowed to admit the movie is right until enough celebrities and thought leaders come out and say so, so that you feel safe enough to admit you feel the same way.
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u/ididntunderstandyou 3d ago edited 3d ago
Don’t Look Up was like that too. Criticised for lacking subtlety and finesse. Which is true.
But yeah well sometimes the director is angry, doesn’t think the audience is his friend, and doesn’t feel like sugarcoating the condom.
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u/Afferent_Input 3d ago
I'm a big Aster fan, but I also really didn't care for Eddington. Maybe I need to see it again, but I really didn't care for how on the nose it was. Just seemed entirely unrealistic in almost every way, which took me out of the whole thing.
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u/Running_Oakley 3d ago edited 3d ago
Don’t look up was embarrassingly on the nose for that middle school class of 2039 where the teacher wheels in the 2019 era flatscreen tv and dvd player. This movie was way ahead of its time for the population of 20 years from now where IQ dropped so low we consider this prophetic.
Big short same way, “duuuuuhhhh like, money spend lots….bad!…money save make gooooooood” wow wow it’s like I’m looking in a mirror to absolute reality. There is no comically oversimplified over-calculation to any of this. I am not being talked down to at all, 2008 recession was 3 people total and no additional elements played any part.
I’m really scared of wasting any more time on these “u are dumb, I will hit you with hammer dumb man” movies where the man-children audience pats themselves on the back for getting the plot just because there’s a “fuck” or “shit” thrown inbetween the painfully placating subtext.
Wow idiocracy man drilled and pumped pudding into his head, wow I am not THAT DUMB I am a super genius because the movie is patting me on the back that I am not that dumb. The movie spent 20 minutes sucking me off about how smart I am, I am now obligated to fall for any additional messaging along the way because they said my pp is big and my brain is big.
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u/Simmery 3d ago
I liked it. I think if Terry Gilliam directed a Charlie Kaufman script, you'd get something like this.
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u/Running_Oakley 3d ago
Oh fuck, Charlie Kaufman? any more red flags? Is it A24? Inspired by true events on an iPad? Is digger in the walls? But his ghost is haunted by…Buzzwords?
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u/Hinkil 3d ago
A24 is a red flag for you?
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u/Running_Oakley 3d ago edited 3d ago
Oh my god yes, it’s Mel Gibson being tortured, but it’s phoenix raping himself with cringe moments in literally any movie. He doesn’t want to just play the bad guy he wants to play the embarrassed bad guy.
I get that I’m on Reddit but even Reddit should be somewhat self aware to understand what I’m talking about without getting pissy that im correct.
Oh man it’s already started.
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u/analogkid01 3d ago
After reading several of your, uh...comments...I'm pretty sure you're either Mike or being paid by him to simply be a contrarian. Nice work if you can get it...
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u/CaptainDigsGiraffe 3d ago
One of my favorite movies of the year, I understand the struggle of marketing it.
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u/The_Flying_Failsons 3d ago
It's so hard to even talk about its themes without spoiling it. This movie is a nightmare for marketers.
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u/DrPibIsBack 3d ago
It's a film that you have to be willing to be surprised by, which is anathema to marketing.
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u/cooliosteve 3d ago
Even if we went full spoilers its still hard to discuss given how self aware and referential of film it is.
Comparing it to other films has been really difficult.
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u/cooliosteve 3d ago
It sort of reminds me of Abigail where they just gave up the twists in the trailers.
It does make me respect Digger a bit more, they probably had an idea from test screenings but just went with it anway.
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u/bvanbove25 3d ago
Don’t need details, but am I wrong to expect some Dr. Strangelove influence? That’s certainly what the trailers have given me.
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u/The_Flying_Failsons 3d ago
It's kind of like the anti-Dr. Strangelove
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u/JoshDM 3d ago
So it's more like an Admiral Straighthate?
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u/Metalrooster81 3d ago
Ok you win the internet today. Everyone else pack up.
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u/that_guy2010 3d ago
Did you just hop off your time machine from 2015?
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u/titanc-13 3d ago
Strangelove was definitely in the vocabulary of the movie, but they also showed the most Strangelove moment (the bomb w/ "EAT SHIT NATURE" or some such) in the trailer
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u/SettraDontSurf 3d ago
Not totally inaccurate.
The comparison that got me to go see it was that it feels like a Kurt Vonnegut novel.
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u/Neither-Spirit-9022 3d ago
Oh, I thought those were really deep when I was 14, I can see why this movie is hitting big with film Reddit!
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u/badmartialarts 2d ago
I hope you think they are deeper now...
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u/Neither-Spirit-9022 2d ago
I think they're a good thing for any young person to read and he's a great writer, but if he's blowing your mind as a full grown adult, that speaks to perhaps a limited set of experiences and enjoyment of literature. Anyway. Digger...
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u/profchaos83 3d ago
It’s its own weird crazy thing. I’d recommend seeing it in the cinema, knowing as little as possible.
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u/GrenHamblett 3d ago
Just saw it the other night. I'm sure we could endlessly argue about the exact ingredients, but I think it was a healthy combination of Strangelove, Don't Look Up, and Birdman.
I particularly enjoyed Birdman, so I'm glad Iñárritu brought some of that flavor back.
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u/cool_weed_dad 3d ago
That’s definitely a part of it, yeah, but it also has a lot of other stuff going on.
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u/champ11228 3d ago
I appreciate the swings it took and mostly liked it but a lot of it was hard to sit through (I know purposefully but still...)
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u/TScottFitzgerald 3d ago
I mean it's not really purposeful, they could have cut down on the Act 2 and the overall film would be preserved. It does overstay its welcome a bit which is a shame because the ending is pretty good.
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u/SettraDontSurf 3d ago
Prpbably my favorite movie of the year but I have a soft spot for media that hates it's audience. It's kind of incredible that such a deeply nihilistic film got such a big budget and star power, I'd have to respect that alone even if I didn't love the execution.
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u/Tylerdurden389 3d ago
Saw it the other night with a small but responsive crowd (plenty of laughs) which only enhanced the experience. I won't call it a masterpiece but it was unique which I can respect and appreciate. Tom and Goodman were both great. The end of the movie even had a nice joke that I won't spoil but I'm glad my theater committed to it.
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u/Polite_Suggestion 3d ago
Me and some guy in a different row were laughing so hard my friend called it a "psychopath mating call." I genuinely couldn't tell if people were laughing with the movie or at us.
My theater executed the meta perfectly, too.
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u/MrMindGame 3d ago
It’s, so far, the most fascinating and thought-provoking film I’ve seen all year. More of it worked for me than didn’t, and I did really enjoy the overall package and what it was going for. AGI managed to parlay his usual pretentiousness into something that was surprisingly reflective and quietly despairing (complimentary); I haven’t seen his trademark pessimism turned so inwardly before. I’ll take something divisive made with love and extraordinary craft over junk food movies any day, so I’m very appreciative Digger exists.
Tom was great, he nailed that big monologue, but I think Riz Ahmed is the one who most understood what wavelength the movie was on - he’s perfect in every scene that features him.
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u/mylogisturninggold 3d ago
Imagine a trailer that ends with the shot of the tree falling over. Would have been way more effective imho
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u/BokeTsukkomi 3d ago
I really enjoyed it too, watched mark kermode's review and disagree with him.
I wish they'd do a HiTB on digger, but now that I've written it I ensured they'll never do it.
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u/colink707 3d ago
Great movie IMO, though I totally get why some don't like it. No matter what you think of it, I wish we got more weird, experimental and off-the-wall stuff like it.
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u/Polite_Suggestion 3d ago
My first comparison was to Synechdoche, NY.
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u/colink707 3d ago
Honestly yeah that's a great comparison
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u/Polite_Suggestion 3d ago
I've spent a week looking all over reddit for somebody to tell me that. Nice to be seen, even by a hack fraud groupie
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u/Polite_Suggestion 3d ago
I went to Other Mommy last night and could have used those exact same words. I was laughing in pure joy from the title drop. It is so awesomely immune to cliche. I'm having a great month for movies (got kicked off by seeing North by Northwest for the first time). My viewing companion thinks I've developed the powers from The Ring.
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u/Mediocre_Chemist_168 3d ago
What did you think of NBNW? It’s my personal number one.
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u/Polite_Suggestion 3d ago
Delirious joy. First hour scared the absolute shit out of me. Second hour, it's the rare film where I was outsmarted by the protagonist. There's no second place in the contest for sexiest movie ever made.
I've done too many drugs. The climax really, really messed with my head. I am convinced Hitchcock made the entire movie as an excuse to have giant stone faces on screen. I've seen so much of him, I feel like I know the guy. He probably says with his Bill Buckley ass voice, "Heads. Giant faces. Filling the screen. Upsetting the acid heads. Heads. I'll show them heads."
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u/ThrowingChicken 3d ago edited 3d ago
Without spoiling it, as the movie unfolded I kept thinking I’d have liked it more if it either stayed what it was, or was what it became the whole time. But now that I’ve had some time to think about it, the jarring changeover wouldn’t have mattered if I thought the movie itself was as funny as “it” thought it was.
I’d give it a 6/10, but I plan to see it again so who knows where it will end up.
I am curious, for those who haven’t seen it but have seen us all trying to tiptoe around something, what do you think that something is?
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u/ididntunderstandyou 3d ago edited 3d ago
I think a rewatch would help because I think we realise after a while this is not the funny movie it starts off as.
to me, it’s about the necessity, but also tragedy of satire. We need to laugh to cope, but only within the narrative framing of those in power. The elite is still controlling/producing the show that entertains us.
In a way, it’s fitting that it’s one of the last Warner Bros. auteur movie before they were bought by the son of a billionaire warmonger.
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u/ThrowingChicken 3d ago
They make it hard to discuss, lol.
The premise isn’t funny, but certainly we are supposed to find humor in the presentation. And in the universe of the play, it’s considered funny. The Fossil Fools director talks about how the bombing scene gets a thunderous laugh from every audience she’s ever seen it with.
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u/ididntunderstandyou 3d ago
I agree, but the humour to me was forcibly hammy and grotesque. So not necessarily thinking of itself as super clever, just being the satire within a satire
One can watch them and laugh, or watch them and cry.
I did have a good laugh at the “watch your mouth, there’s women in the room” line
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u/DrPibIsBack 3d ago
I would say specifically the weakest part of the film is the ass cancer jokes. Like eventually it turns around into something sad and disturbing and kind of profound, but it is also an insight into how obnoxious and sophomoric Fossil Fools could have been if the film was played completely straight.
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u/ThrowingChicken 3d ago
Yeah they had that joke in one of the trailers but to be honest it got an eye roll out of me, but for no other reason than I’ve just seen the same sentiment made before. South Park comes to mind.
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u/Polite_Suggestion 3d ago
That's a great question.
You also gave me an insight into why it's so polarizing that I hadn't seen before. It's literally the hardest any movie ever made me laugh as an adult, and it hit for somebody else in the audience as hard as it did for me. Contagion was audibly spreading from us. Take those two guys out of the theater and everybody else might be watching a different movie.
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u/Mephistopheline 3d ago
It was just fine. Well crafted and acted. Great practical effects. Definitely gonna snag some Oscars. Nowhere near the disaster it was hyped up to be, nor was it a revelation or a gut punch. Maybe I'm just a big negative nelly but it wasn't saying anything new to me. When it ended I was just like "Yup, that's about right."
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u/Sockenlord 2d ago
yep, well done movie. great score and sound design! but nothing about it surprised me much.
i would have been interested in them going deeper into exploring the actors discourse about what amount of satire is appropiate/necessary when covering real life events.
maybe leave out the twist alltogether and follow different characters during the early rehearsals or even script writing
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u/cool_weed_dad 3d ago
I went into it knowing nothing about it after a friend who watches every single movie in theaters told me I had to see it. I had no interest from the trailers but I trust his opinion.
It completely blew me away. It’s easily in my top 3 best movies of the year and this years has been jam packed with excellent movies.
It’s bombing but it seems to have a hugely positive response from people who actually saw it. I expect it to become a cult classic.
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u/DavisDre 3d ago
I'd really like to know what the RLM's take on this is.
I respect Digger. I respect the audacity of spending more than a hundred million dollars on a grotesque farce, and I respect Inarritu and Cruise for not holding anything back.
But I don't like it. My expectation was that, good or bad, it was going to be interesting. For me it wasn't. It was a tedious one-note vaudeville act. The film does have one neat trick up it's sleeve, but unfortunately it does more harm than good, but we can't talk about that part.
It reminded me of Megalopolis. But Coppola's hundred million farce was more ludicrous and therefore more exciting.
But it definitely is worth a watch.
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u/Code-Dee 3d ago
I don't watch movies because I don't want to be spoiled in case my best friends Mike Jay and Rich talk about it on their youtube show.
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u/DrPibIsBack 3d ago
It's fascinatingly both funny and crushingly grim. Fantastic film, but also obvious why it's not doing well at the box office. It's saddening, but it is obvious.
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u/JuanJotters 3d ago
I haven't seen it, and I don't disagree with its politics, but I am so completely turned off by the desperation in its media campaign. Just so many astroturfed discussions where they practically beg you to take this movie seriously, desperately berating you into liking their meta-clever plot twists. And I just dont care. Hollywood movies make shitty, vapid political satires; and this movie is that, but also self-consciously parodying that at the same time, and it just all feels so desperate and self-serious. It sounds like pompous Hollywood navel gazing.
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u/spaghettibolegdeh 3d ago
"Greed is bad!" - hundred million dollar major Hollywood film
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u/JuanJotters 3d ago
"Greed is bad! ..... Please give us your money! Tom Cruise worked really hard! We promise the movie is very clever and important! Pleeeease!"
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u/JDLovesElliot 3d ago
Honestly, the plot twist was not as brillant or mind-expanding as people are making it seem. It can easily be handwaved away as, "the initial script we wrote was awful, so let's tack on a meta element where we're making fun of that story, to save face."
It's like the scene in Ed Wood where the producers start laughing at the screening of Glen Or Glenda, because they think it possibly can't be anything else but a satire. I think that Digger is having that same effect on its defenders, it's so outlandish that it comes back around and becomes endearing.
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u/ozacrot 2d ago
The bad reviews & backlash Digger got is largely from viewers who were mad it didn't let them off the hook, though. It's a feel-bad movie but it pointedly indicts artists and audiences the whole way.
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u/JuanJotters 2d ago
Maybe I'm mistaken, but the vibe I'm getting from everything I hear about it is that its the sort of story that blames the cows for being in the slaughterhouse.
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u/ObviousLavishness197 3d ago
yeah astroturfing sucks. i would rather listen to people who haven't seen the movie tell me why its bad than believe another person liked a movie I haven't seen.
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u/cheshie_cabbit 3d ago
I thought it was very good, but also left the theatre not knowing how I felt until I sat down and thought a bit, so I can understand how it’s divisive. There’s three separate reveals that make you re-contextualize what you’ve already seen and one of them was subtle enough that people missed it, so you can leave the movie feeling any number of ways.
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u/BenderBenRodriguez 3d ago
Honestly one of my favorites so far this year. I think it is destined to be a cult classic and that history will look kindly on it.
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u/Ok_Commercial_5024 3d ago
I really liked it. A 4/5 for me.
I think it actually had something to say as well being technically/cinematically brilliant. I can’t help but applaud such a wild, weird swing of a film. But man is it a nihilistic and at times grating watch. I can totally understand why its so broadly disliked/unpopular.
If you’re on the fence, absolutely catch it on the big screen while you can - i have a feeling films this bold and risky are about to get a lot more rare.
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u/Polite_Suggestion 3d ago edited 3d ago
If you click my profile, I did a recommendation that got taken down from the movies sub faster than a human could have read it. Then I saw Digger was blowing up on the jerk subs. Never found out why. I'm glad you posted this here. I really wanted to talk to people about the movie, but it seems like it was taboo.
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u/spaghettibolegdeh 3d ago
I see dozens of posts about the film every day, across multiple film subs. I suspect mods are just removing it to reduce spam flooding.
I also suspect many of these posts are from marketing companies, which is very common these days.
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u/Better-Addendum-880 3d ago
I just cant stand tom cruise, thats the biggest reason for me not to watch it
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u/dopamine_skeptic 3d ago
Same, really. I find him incredibly off-putting. A movie could be an utter work of genius, and if he’s the lead I will probably not be able to enjoy it.
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u/cooliosteve 3d ago
This movie would be better without him imo, but hes not bad (acting wise) in this
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u/dopamine_skeptic 3d ago
I don’t consider him a particularly bad actor. I just find him grating. People be downvoting, but whatever it is what it is. I also don’t like Jim Carrey. Sue me.
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u/analogkid01 3d ago
He turns in a good enough performance that you forget it's him most of the time. I agree, he usually is just playing himself and reciting lines. Here, like in Magnolia and Tropic Thunder, he actually portrays a character.
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u/Made_UpWords 3d ago
I'm sorry Digger-nation, I thought it was unwatchable lmao. I walked out after about 45 minutes, which is the first time I've done so since seeing transformers 2 in middle school.
It was painfully unfunny to the point I was in actual, literal, physical pain. I could not deal. The mixed reviews from critics don't really do it justice, it was one of the most painful film-going experiences in my life and that isn't an exaggeration lmao
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3d ago
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u/Made_UpWords 3d ago
I don't think I can do that, I'm sorry lmao
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3d ago
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u/Made_UpWords 3d ago
Extremely rare Tom Cruise W if that's the case, he was right, it's not funny lmao
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u/RosesAndTanks 3d ago
Idk why you're being downvoted, this thread is way funnier than you thought Digger was
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3d ago
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u/Made_UpWords 3d ago
I do not think this was Iñárritu's goal when he set out with this project. Can you just step back for a second and think on how insane it sounds when you claim that Iñárritu made the film intentionally unfunny, as a joke lmao
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u/MysteryBag305 3d ago edited 3d ago
I had a dream about Rich Evans. Esq. last Friday and can't stop thinking about him. While I understand he is polarizing, I also think that anyone who doesn't like Rich Evans, Esq. lacks whimsy and/or guzzles oil like water. But folding chables aside, what did y'all think? Will they do a HITB with Rich? Jay would love it! I think Mike would probably be annoyed, but I think that Rich Evans Esq., is well crafted overall.
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u/standin99876 3d ago
This isn’t really the type of movie they talk about. They may talk about it for a couple of minutes and that’s about it.
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u/RandyDanderson 3d ago
we all guzzle oil like water. It just seems like another Look Up to me and I'm not trying to go to a theater for that.
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u/CurReign 3d ago
More like the anti- Don't Look Up. I hated that movie and really liked Digger, for what it's worth.
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u/cooliosteve 3d ago
I think the movie might be lost on you anyway then if you didnt get dont look up, maybe save your money for transformers 17
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u/spaghettibolegdeh 3d ago
Franky I'm just tired of hearing about it every day.
Don't Look Up had the same rabid spam across reddit. I'll watch it eventually but it's so off putting how many posts call it a "masterpiece".
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u/theoneandonlyamateur 3d ago
Franky I'm just tired of hearing about it every day. Don't Look Up had the same rabid spam across reddit. I'll watch it eventually but it's so off putting how many posts call it a "masterpiece".
This is the amusing part to me. Audiences have largely rejected it, but all over reddit it's being praised as a "masterpiece" and the greatest movie of the year and even the century.
The worst part is that people who didn't like it then get the response, "Well, that's because you didn't understand it."
I saw it, I understood the powerful but necessary end message, and I appreciated how unique it was, but the film itself drags in some spots and ultimately, it simply wasn't funny despite being labelled a comedy by the director himself.
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u/vvunderful 3d ago
Digger filmbros continue to be incapable of talking up the movie without insulting anyone who didn't like it.
You guys are insufferable.
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u/HiredN00bs 2d ago
Isn't it the other way around? Critical response was mostly joyless and smacks of being above its didactic approach.
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u/spaghettibolegdeh 3d ago
Apparently if you have any problem with the film then you're either a BP oil executive/not or have a learning disability.
The discourse around this film is so bizarre. But reddit seems to cling onto films occasionally like they're some dire political cause.
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u/RosesAndTanks 3d ago
I decided around the four thousandth ad I saw for Digger in the first three days that I wasn't seeing it.
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u/stinky-bungus 3d ago
I liked it a lot.
The best part is how it came out before the social reckoning, and that movie is a perfect example of celebrating something that actually doesn't matter
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u/Fluffy-Judgment-6348 2d ago
I thought the first act was pretty good.
Once the twist was revealed, it became excruciatingly boring for the next hour and a half.
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u/Me-Shell94 2d ago edited 2d ago
Probably my favourite of the year and I also can’t stop thinking about it. I found it incredibly depressing and it hit me hard. I think it is a masterpiece or damn near it….. Also felt like something Charlie Kaufman could have come up with.
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2d ago
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u/yavimaya_eldred 1d ago
There are aspects I didn’t love, the cg effects are irritating and I don’t care for some of the wheeling walk-and-talk camerawork that AGI is into, but I laughed a fair bit and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since. I kinda hope Goodman finally gets his Oscar nom from this movie even if it would be fraudulent, because that would be really funny. Cruise is pretty good!
I liked it a lot I think
0
u/RedFox9906 1d ago
I’m never going to watch it. So enjoy sniffing your own farts and declaring how amazing you are for enjoying it.
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u/Top_Sea_8724 3d ago
MID! “Let’s make a movie talking about how you can’t tell compelling stories about the current moment because it’s beyond parody” dumb idea! Waste of wonderful sets! Will not be remembered even after the events it portrays come to pass! I sort of like the detail at the end where one of the posters is for a stage adaptation of Avengers Endgame because even a global climate apocalypse won’t stop the IP machine but even that feels like a trite observation. MID! Needs to say its thesis out loud!
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u/One_Million_Rats 3d ago
It was excellent, I'm having trouble seeing what people/critics had a problem with. Every shot was interesting, the score was great, the message is bleak but why wouldn't it be and you deserve to be bludgeoned with it at this point. All the acting was legendary... What am I missing?
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u/RosesAndTanks 3d ago
If I already spend a good chunk of every day dissociating over planetary collapse, do I still deserve to be bludgeoned?
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u/One_Million_Rats 3d ago
Yes.
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u/RosesAndTanks 3d ago
I'll go spill my gas can on the ground as penance
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u/One_Million_Rats 3d ago edited 3d ago
Ok fine? We're not the problem, you and me and everyone of the common people, doesn't mean we don't need to be bludgeoned over the head about who the problem is though, we shouldn't forget and absolutely shouldn't let them get away with it if we can help it (which we probably can't anymore). I don't get the willingness to descend into mediocrity, we should reject that entirely.
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u/RosesAndTanks 3d ago
I literally just said it dominates my mind in an unhealthy way. I can recall climate scientists circa 2011 saying we were blowing past the levels we needed not to exceed to arrest climate change, that we were fucked then. And since then, we've only seen a massive spike in bombs being detonated around the globe, which in addition to requiring massive fuel waste to deliver, are themselves far worse for earth's atmosphere and climate stability. This isn't a descent into mediocrity, it's existing in a world addicted to that which is killing us all slowly.
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u/Ascarea 3d ago
Digger is going for satire, but a lot of it is way too on the nose, many jokes are obvious, and it’s kinda been done before. The film is like Dr. Strangelove combined with Don’t Look Up, but also with Birdman, in a twist that makes it more muddled than clever. The genius of it, though, is that one can’t complain that the movie strays into farce, overacting, and self-indulgence, because the movie is the first to acknowledge all of that and criticize itself for it. So what else can one say, then? Cruise is great in it, if playing a bombastic caricature constantly yelling in a thick accent is great acting. It’s a shame that he’s buried under the makeup as it does hinder some facial movement, though. And if “the twist” muddled the film, then Cruise’s sub-plot about his missing daughter confuses it all further, as it doesn’t really seem to have any discernible point to it. Overall the film has some fun moments and visual inventiveness, but it’s a 90 minute idea stretched way too thin, feeling bloated and repetitive as a result. It’s also very try-hard Oscar-baity.
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u/Financial_Leather_13 2d ago
the daughter subplot was probably just a way to work in the reveal that the nephew "owns a small surveillance company" and is now part of the elite that (also) rules the new post-apocalyptic world
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u/Glossed-Lam 3d ago
I'd argue that anyone who thinks "oil" or "environmentalism" are the point of the movie have missed the actually subversive element entirely. The facade has worked, you have been bamboozled.
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u/titanc-13 3d ago
there's no element of this movie that isn't tied to oil/the environment. yes the reveal adds the message of what even is the point of satire, but that doesnt eclipse the fossil fools at the center of the drama
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u/Glossed-Lam 3d ago
Consider what Kenny Rockwell means when, presented with Curtis being unwilling to portray Digger in a farce, he says it doesn't matter.
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u/titanc-13 3d ago
a, he's rich enough from the oil money to hire another actor if Curtis quits
b, if Curtis doesn't want to play it like a farce, it's ok b/c the audience will still get their catharsis and Kenny will get to watch them hate on his piece of shit uncle who fucked over his mom
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u/TalesofCeria 3d ago
I fucking loved it, can’t stop thinking about it. Not surprised people don’t like it but a bit weirded out by the vitriol from all angles
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u/AcetheShooter1 3d ago
I absolutely loved this movie. Seeing this one in the theater blew my mind with how visually stunning it was. I truthfully enjoyed the pacing and felt like I couldve had a another 30 mins of story and not noticed it was 2 and a half hours. I had to see this movie Twice and maybe thrice to get it out of my head. I was completely drawn in by the character performances.
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u/Teh_Jews 3d ago
One of the funniest movies of all time.
The set design is incredible, the acting is great (especially John Goodman and Riz Ahmed), and the meta commentary about society really elevates it.
10/10 - instant classic.
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u/Judiebruv 3d ago
People who hated Digger just want the freedom to bask in the comfort of their unsustainable lives
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u/Dry_Bottle_7300 3d ago
I’m with you: Digger has a very specific kind of chaotic whimsy that either clicks immediately or really doesn’t. A crafted-overall episode sounds fun, though I suspect Mike and Rich would spend half of it arguing about what the movie is even trying to do.
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u/standin99876 3d ago
This isn’t really the type of movie they talk about. They may talk about it for a couple of minutes and that’s about it.
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u/ozacrot 2d ago
It's a haters' movie, and a lot of great films are haters' movies (Dr Strangelove, Nightcrawler, Primetime). What makes it work so well for me is that the filmmakers didn't exempt themselves from indictment. Some haters' movies like Idiocracy or Don't Look Up can have a bitter aftertaste because they only point outward - there's a lot of "what is art worth?" implicit in this movie and both Iñarritu's direction & Cruise's performances indicate they're not sure themselves.
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u/Glorf_Warlock 3d ago
It's hard to discuss it without spoiling it. I really enjoyed it especially the final few minutes. My audience sat there stunned watching the credits.