Digger

When was the last time a film surprised you? Made you believe there were still new ways to experience a story?

Digger. Yes, it stars Tom Cruise (in his finest not-the-usual-Tom hour), Riz Ahmed (we love Riz!), John Gorman, Jesse Plemons, Emma D’Arcy and Sandra Hüller, to name just a few. But before you hurry to book tickets to this boundary-breaking piece of cinema, it’s our Lead Technician Sam’s review you should listen to:

“At a time when it can often feel like we’re ‘running out of films’, Digger plays with the form in a way that is impossible to describe without spoiling it. You really should go in blind if you can – the payoff is so sweet that I repeatedly found myself gawping at the screen, grinning ear to ear. It’s a film that truly merits a second viewing; once you know where it’s going, so much of what you saw on first watch is reframed as a meticulous, pinpoint production decision.

Iñárritu’s command of scale certainly goes a long way towards that. It is maximalist and deeply surreal, with settings and scenarios that feel absurdly grand and yet wholly fitting once the central device reveals itself and the structure clicks into place. It’s didactic and satirical far beyond subtlety, ultimately reconciling with the question: ‘What is the point of art in the face of the end of the world?’

It readily contends with the idea of perception versus truth – art has the capability to provide catharsis and escape, but it can also guide and reshape our understanding of what we’re seeing in the real world. It ends with an unnervingly immersive reminder: however convincing, exhilarating or soothing those two hours of escape may be, eventually we have to step back into the real world and reckon with what’s actually there, rather than simply what we’ve been led to believe is there.”

— Sam, Lead Technician