Everyone Hates ‘Digger.’ It’s the Perfect Climate Movie
The film 'Digger' is a meta-satire starring Tom Cruise that critiques climate change discourse and capitalist structures. The movie uses a play-within-a-film format to challenge audience perceptions of climate villains.
Why it matters
It highlights how modern cinema is evolving to address complex environmental anxieties through experimental storytelling.
Absolutely yes—and it’s a movie that rewired my expectations of what a movie about climate change should be. Digger, the critically panned, exorbitantly expensive new film from Alejandro González Iñárritu, calls into question the purpose of art and even the basic purpose of telling the truth in the face of a capitalist machine churning the world toward climate disaster. The deeply uncomfortable film forces audiences to confront what kind of characters we’re the most comfortable making into climate villains.
(Spoilers ahead—if you have any plans to see the movie, I really would encourage you to do so first before reading on.)
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