An upcoming film from Academy Award-winning Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu has generated significant anticipation, yet early assessments suggest it may be the year’s most disappointing release. The eco-satire is described as exasperatingly shallow, laborious, and self-congratulatory, featuring a narrative twist and strong actors delivering lackluster performances.
While Tom Cruise’s boisterous lead portrayal offers some entertaining moments, the film’s primary merit lies in its visual aesthetics. Cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki and production designer Dennis Gassner have created dreamlike and disturbing imagery that appears distorted and bulging from the screen.
Cruise portrays Digger Rockwell, an aging, paunchy Texan oil magnate. The character is depicted fretfully starting his day, caring for an incontinent elderly cat, and receiving urgent updates from subordinates regarding a crisis at his Arctic drilling station. Cruise adopts a wispy balding look, various prosthetics, a Southern twang, and a Stetson hat reminiscent of Slim Pickens’ character in Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove.
Central to Digger’s persona is a battered shovel once used by his grandfather a century prior to dig for oil in Texas while penniless. The character frequently brandishes this artifact to emphasize his points.
Lubezki cinematography usually guarantees a watch, but I’m worried Cruise’s loud performance will overshadow the serious themes.
Another Oscar-bait disappointment? I’m skeptical. The reviews are piling up fast, and nobody wants another self-congratulatory mess.
Wait, he’s taking care of an incontinent elderly cat? That detail alone makes me want to see it immediately.
Visuals might save it, but if the narrative is laborious, why bother? I need substance, not just distorted imagery.
Tom Cruise in prosthetics is always entertaining, but a shallow eco-satire sounds like a waste of G Iñárritu’s genius.