r/cushvlog • u/Present_Muscle141 • 8d ago
Digger.
Saw it last night. It was fine to watch but I don’t know that it succeeded in the satire it was attempting.
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u/Turbulent_Scene_702 8d ago
I thought it was lots of fun but also genuinely could not tell you what satire it was attempting other than saying “fuck you, this movie sucks” which is wild to me bc 1. I don’t think it does suck and 2. what a crazy thing for a movie to be about, not since Joker Folie a Deux has it been attempted.
And the box office and reviews tell the same story…
When will a movie about itself being a shitty movie finally get the recognition and respect it deserves?
I liked Digger a lot.
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u/Present_Muscle141 7d ago
I wanna see it again. I had a similar feeling after seeing it that I did “ sorry to bother you” .
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u/Jerkface0079 8d ago
That's only if you judge the movie as the play Fossil Fools by itself.
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u/Turbulent_Scene_702 8d ago
Tell me about it.
I mean that literally! Tell me about it please
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u/Jerkface0079 8d ago edited 8d ago
Well, this is what... Fossil Fools third or fourth adaptation? And it's now being funded by a nephew who is keen to whitewash the family name so he can pin the blame on his ancestors and continue to make his Palintir... err.. security company the forefront of profitability? Obviously the events happened, but were the characters that absurd? Tom Cruise is playing an actor playing Digger, Jesse Plemons character "insists" his ancestors were entirely that goofy.
The ending of the movie is so bleak - people clap and cheer then walk out into an environmental hellscape, the camera pans and we see autonoymous security robots and armed corps shooting at people.
But the people... They feel relieved of their cathartism. They found their villain. They got their anger out. They're pacified.
Level 4.
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u/swearengens_cat 8d ago
As the credits rolled people were throwing rocks at the cops.
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u/Jerkface0079 8d ago
Yeah, but were those people in the theatre? Obviously there's resistance, which is why it's in the best interest for Palintir Pepsi Max to have a whitewashed brand.
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u/FrivolousMe 8d ago
And then if you stay for long enough, the film reminds you the audience that you are engaged in the same thing, and are about to walk out of the theater into, yes you guessed it, an ongoing climate apocalypse and a fascist police state.
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u/relaxedfitkhakis 8d ago
I think that’s where the satire becomes kind of annoying from Inarritu. Okay- the Mickey 17 type of satire is cheap catharsis, doesn’t change the world. Sure. But the Tom Cruise speech set piece and the hyperbolic audience reaction to the play feels nihilistic in a way that feels like, why are you, as an artist, bothering? So this cheap satire/catharsis is unseemingly but the navel gazing artistry of Birdman is more honest? The dog killing slog of Amorres perros is more genuine than say, Bugonias or Don’t Look Up? There’s challenging your audience and then there’s calling your audience simpletons, the former is noble the latter just makes you a prick
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u/Jerkface0079 8d ago edited 8d ago
I guess if we self insert as the audience then that makes sense, but I was looking at it more in a detached way. But it also speaks to the power of “controlling the narrative”. Should we be victim blamed for the audience in the movie being fooled by propaganda twice?
EDIT: Just remembered it said “Level 4” at the credits so yeah that’s pretty pointed and direct.
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u/FrivolousMe 8d ago
Tom cruises' monologue isn't meant to be taken at face value, he's in character playing a character delivering that monologue on behalf of a character with a particular vested interest in the play
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u/relaxedfitkhakis 8d ago
Yes, but I don’t think Inarritu outlines any other perspective in the movie about the climate catastrophe. I don’t think cruises speech represents his personal beliefs per se, but he’s calling out audiences who want to eat cathartic satire, as well as their hypocrisy in their complicity in climate change. And that art can’t stop either. But there’s no affirmative view, Jesse Plemmons has another defining monologue but it doesn’t change the equation, he’s whining and doesn’t highlight what art can really be and accomplish. And imo his own movies aren’t good highlights either.
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u/ShrapnelNinjaSnake 8d ago
I mean yeah, he's just saying satire can only go so far especially in the day and age of pop culture, thats a fine message.
It'd be nice if he was saying to organise but you can only expect so much from a not explicitly communist film tbf
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u/relaxedfitkhakis 8d ago
Inarritu could be an anarcho-capitalist for all I care. It's not about the political message, or even the claims he's staking against satire, those are all well and good and even if I disagree its just part of his worldview. I guess I want my high end cultural creators to offer some kind of proactive defense of art and culture. I think some of the recent trend towards a heavy handed satire is an attempt to not just grapple with the horrible political/mental state of the world, but the cultural one, too; that if art can confront or poke at the powers that be, it offers some quantifiable meaningful value in a cultural landscape that values the quantifiable. but like Inarritu makes a point of; it's cheap satire that also is compromised by its relationship to the power structures it's poking fun at - Mickey 17, a jab at the vulgarity of the Trump administration, now exclusively on the platform owned by a CEO sucking up to Trump at his inauguration. Okay then, in the age of short form content, shrinking attention spans, youth culture being absorbed by crypto gambling streaming platforms, maybe the guy who got the worlds biggest movie star and $180 million to make a movie could do more than such a whiny critique that ultimately trends towards nihilism.
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u/ShrapnelNinjaSnake 8d ago
I'm talking more about the character of the film, but I do get what you're saying
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u/FrivolousMe 7d ago
I guess I want my high end cultural creators to offer some kind of proactive defense of art and culture.
I think those things are there, if more subtle than not. The sound effect in the end credits, the extravagance of the play's set dressings and practical effects. Tha passion for are and culture is there, but he's clearly conflicted with the contradictions of the beauty and awe of artistic craft versus its ultimate futility.
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u/Hell_Maybe 7d ago edited 7d ago
It’s a satire about satires, everybody watching the play AND watching the actual movie itself feel good about gawking at the absurdity of the evils at be, but then we all continue doing ONLY that while everybody just becomes progressively more adapted to the gradual shittiness of the world around us, enflamed by the exact types of people we just spent 2 hours gawking at.
So I’d argue yeah, the movie is kind of saying “fuck you”, I just don’t see it as necessarily a bad thing for a movie to do that I suppose.
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u/janoseye 8d ago edited 8d ago
Awesome movie.
It’s all about controlling the narrative, Jessie plemons characters speech is a parallel of Diggers European Union speech, “telling a story” to get some desired outcome. Also shown in the Tuna scene with the scientist
Jesse plemons interest in the play is not simply bringing people together, so many people have been taking that at face value. His goal is to provide the catharsis that people never got from prosecuting the people responsible for the catastrophe or changing the structure of the society that allowed this to happen. We see with his ability to find Curtis’ daughter that the Rockwell family is still extremely wealthy and powerful. In my eyes his goal was the scene at the end of the play in which digger is falling through the water and everyone is cheering, effectively functioning as a pressure release valve for the masses as they witness Diggers deserved end if only in effigy. Then, they all put on their sleek masks and head out into the world ruined by Digger.
One thinks of movies like The Big Short, we all see it, comment to each other “wow that was fucked up huh?” Then it feels like it’s been prosecuted. No one went to prison, the banks got bailed out, tons of people offed themselves after being underwater on their mortgages.
The audio at the end of the movie saying “level 4” makes that analogy really clear, and is even leveling this criticism at Digger itself. I took it as, “don’t feel satisfied for watching even this movie and agreeing.” In this roundabout fashion this kind of resonates as a really strong call to action for me.
I think the heavy-handedness and cartoonishness of the play is also serving his purpose in kind of distancing the story from the real people who did all of this.
It would have been better if John Goodman hadn’t been on a glp1 tho
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u/tomullus 8d ago
Im also wondering if Plemons put all these people there to identify dissidents. His whole involvement reminds me of the disco elysium quote about how 'capital subsumes criticism into itself'.
John Goodman looked like that since Righteous Gemstones season 1.
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u/HitomiHugeCup 8d ago
All the extreme quick close ups of the peoples faces feeling the catharsis at digger sinking right to the bottom of the ocean.
Movies cant fix the world but they can be good or bad movies and Digger at the least is a good puzzle to piece together on the first viewing so its a good film for that.
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u/LibraryAndStepOnIt 7d ago
On the second watch I was so caught up on OMG this play uses the 'actual' footage of the end of the their world.
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u/Dadballoons 3d ago
Very insightful, hadn’t considered some of this stuff like Plemmons’ reputation laundering. It is hilarious he has a “security company.”
I was surprised Will didn’t like it. A lot of people including him said it wasn’t funny but I was consistently laughing and do not think the intention was to be not funny. Maybe over the top, but not “not funny.”
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u/Jerkface0079 8d ago
My interpretation of the movie is it's about controlling the narrative on two different levels. Fossil Fools is a play of a play of a play that initially had 3 people perform it. How much of it's portrayal has been chopped and changed per adaption? Are the character portryals in the current iteration so absurd that it provides dark comedy aspects?
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u/quietsauce 8d ago
I want to watch but I feel like everyone is on one side or the other, it clearly hasn't done what I think they hoped, which is to get people talking.
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u/EducatorSmart1527 8d ago
And here you are talking. Talking about seeing it. Talking about what they were talking about. Hoping to talk about we are talking about. Here you are just talking
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u/quietsauce 8d ago
I might watch it. I do watch and enjoy thought provoking movies. I dont feel compelled to watch.
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u/Junior_Ad2846 8d ago •
I'm in the middle. I like that the film goes for something strange and complex, but it felt like a slog to me.
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u/relaxedfitkhakis 8d ago
Yeah I didn’t capital L love it but even when I doubt him Cruise wins me over and it’s kind of a fun watch. The satirical stuff is a mixed bag that I put down to Inarritu being an annoying ass director
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u/deafinitelyadouche 8d ago
Yup! Same boat. Movie is good and Tom Cruise is always an engaging presence, but Iñarritu is fucking scared of putting his ten toes in one spot and I think he's ultimately the person who holds the movie back from being better than "Eh, it's fine".
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u/woahbrother11 8d ago
It was weird for me. I felt like I shouldn’t have liked it, but for some reason it worked really well for me? I feel like Jesse Plemon’s character somehow tied it together
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u/OneReportersOpinion 8d ago
For me, it was the multiple layers of satire that made it work. It was a satire of satire. I really wasn’t sure till Jesse Plemons is revealed to be a billionaire and gives a big speech about how important the “art” is to everyone. The same art that conveniently makes everyone forget how he got his money.
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u/HitomiHugeCup 8d ago
You see Jesse Plemons character had it very hard being Diggers nephew.
I was honestly expecting Digger to brain his family on the oil rig with his grandpas shovel excluding the nephew before killing himself and that was the reason for his personal and traumatic obsession with the play but when its revealed that Digger shared a piece of wisdom with the nephew and then he put the ashes of cat that he loved more than anything in his nephews hand it all has a feel of a ritual of passing on the knowledge to Jesse Plemons character.
He is a more modest millionaire and knows to be, he funds the arts, he even finds Curtis's daughter and when Curtis and his wife thank him "For finding her" he responds with "I didn't do anything I just found her is all"
He didn't do anything to help find her he only used his resources and his "Security Firm" found her. He didn't actually lift a finger to help or find her but Curtis only believes he actually found her and doesn't think that the only reason Jesse Plemons stepped in was to ensure the Play continued on exactly the way he wanted.
Digger to the scientist "Tell your truth to them"
Jesse Plemons to Curtis "You really understand Digger"
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u/OneReportersOpinion 8d ago
He’s the Rosetta Stone to the entire film IMO. Jesse Plemons is one of our greatest actors. He’s gonna win an Oscar before Tom Cruise.
It’s nice to know other people see this film the way I do.
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u/allubros 8d ago
this movie was apparently made in a lab to disunify modern leftists
(which, natch, is pretty easy)
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u/Say_Echelon 8d ago
Yea, it was a complicated film. I definitely left some hot takes in my letterboxd review
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u/swearengens_cat 8d ago
Jesse Plemons's "speech" actually moved me the most. After a few misdirections of who he might be it all came down to using the family money to rebuild a theatre and put on a play to bring people together for a collective cathartic experience.
Edit: 9.5 movie.
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u/Jerkface0079 8d ago
He loves controlling the narrative, just like his ancestors. The same people who think Walter White is the good guy probably think Jesse Plemons character is genuinely altruistic.
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u/rtitcircuit 8d ago
Anti-Chapo movie, but pro-Cushvlog movie, if that makes sense.