As the first impressions of “Digger” suggest, Tom Cruise’s latest film – an original big-budget satire co-written and directed by four-time Oscar winner Alejandro González Iñárritu – is set to divide audiences. As for the awards, that could work to his advantage.
Iñárritu is a filmmaker well known to members of the Academy, as all of his films have been nominated for at least one Oscar, including Best Picture winner “Birdman.” It has enough cachet to entice voters to see and judge “Digger” for themselves, despite critics’ reviews being negative.
Despite early talk about Cruise’s work here, the undeniable parts of the film that make it a Best Picture contender – despite what the general audience thinks – are the crafts.
Three-time Best Cinematography Oscar winner (and recent Taylor Swift collaborator) Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki shows a real evolution from the “all-in-one-take” approach his previous collaborations with Iñárritu are known for. Oscar-winning production designer Dennis Gassner keeps audiences on the edge of their seats with the film’s unprecedented scale and surroundings.
And recent Best Casting Oscar nominee Francine Maisler excels at making viewers shout “They are in here too?!” Much has already been made of the film’s co-stars John Goodman, Sandra Hüller, and Riz Ahmed, but Oscar nominee Jesse Plemons and recent “Talk to Me” sensation Sophie Wilde come in for brief moments to shine.
But Cruise is the main challenge in determining how far the film can go on Oscar nomination morning. Audiences may enjoy the film as a “big hit,” but still question its performance. Will they feel like they’ve seen a really broken performance? Funnily enough, his memorable cameo as Les Grossman in “Tropic Thunder” was a bigger transformation, from his initially harder-to-read appearance to the film’s star feeling much more at ease with the comedy.
In “Digger,” Cruise still feels like Cruise.
During a recent appearance on the “New Heights” podcast, he boasted how he whipped the film’s prosthetics team — led by two-time Best Hair and Makeup Oscar winner Kazu Hiro — into shape, taking them only an hour to get in and out of the makeup chair. This may not be received as he intended, and it is easy to imagine that other members of the Makeup Artists and Hair Stylists Branch would not take so kindly to being defeated or conquered.
In general, members of the Academy have been reluctant to award the Oscar to the nominee who wants it. majority. We’ve just seen Timothée Chalamet lose Best Actor near the finish line, after a huge, innovative, polarizing press run that got him the nomination. It happened to be in the same season, when Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson ran a campaign built on signaling that he was ready to move away from empty barriers.
The only actor from an Iñárritu film to finally win an Oscar for his performance was Leonardo DiCaprio for “The Revenant”, when one of the biggest movie stars in the world finally got his “late” Oscar. But that was within the context of his all-time string of Oscar-nominated hits, such as “Inception,” “Django Unchained,” and “The Wolf of Wall Street.”
Cruise is in a weaker position thanks to two “Mission: Impossible” movies that almost sunk. If “Digger” had followed his Best Picture nominee “Top Gun: Maverick,” it would have been a very different story. Now it is needs it more
A saving grace is that “Digger” is a film that will appeal primarily to actors, and Cruise seems willing to engage with that audience. Other contestants, such as Robert Pattinson in “Primetime” or Sebastian Stan in “Fjord,” are less likely to reach such a wide audience of voters. Cruise is not really at the top of the pack, as other stars who have not yet won an Oscar for their acting, such as John Malkovich, Matt Damon and Ryan Gosling, are struggling with more attractive films. Campaigning to open the film is just the beginning for Cruise.
Although many suspected that Goodman would be the Best Supporting Actor nominee for “Digger,” it’s Ahmed who has the richest role, with Plemons as the ultimate visionary. Hüller may be the most short-changed, but she’s already enjoying success, with three more performances this year that could earn her an Oscar nomination. You might be relieved to let this one go.
And, despite the roller-coaster ride Iñárritu has had with the Academy’s Music branch – from his film “Babel” winning composer Gustavo Santaolalla Best Original Score, to both “Birdman” and “The Revenant” being deemed ineligible for that same category – the director proves once again that he has a good ear for music, with the work of Shecomeraker another as a new reporter. He can submit, too.