Art is subjective and opinions are like a certain anatomical feature on the human body – we all have one – so it should be no surprise that a movie such as Tom Cruise’s Digger hasn’t been met with universal acclaim.
Few films or TV shows are.
But the degree to which the latest movie from Oscar-winning Mexican director Alejandro Inarritu has divided critics puts it on the short list of the most polarising films in cinematic history.
But don’t take this critic’s word for it, Digger is wearing it as a badge of honour.
Critical opinion on the movie hit the internet this week and revealed everything from a five-star review in the San Francisco Chronicle and four stars in The Telegraph to one star in The Hollywood Reporter and a big fat zero from the New York Post.
That’s quite a range.
FYI, this newspaper heralded Inarritu’s sprawling film as a grand if altogether discombobulating achievement, awarding it four stars.
The studio behind Cruise’s film responded with a new marketing campaign that leaned into the division, focusing on keywords from prominent reviews and flipping between “masterpiece” and “unpleasant”; “baffling” and “brilliant” and “magnificent” and “insufferable”.
The accompanying highlights from the film include Cruise’s Digger Rockwell character exclaiming, “You know what, f… those people”, before the ad ends with the message, “same film, different truth”.
So, how did Cruise, one of the most bankable and unashamedly mainstream stars in Hollywood, end up in this position?
Well, the fact is Digger is not what the studio has marketed the film as.
If you’ve seen a trailer or two, one would reasonably assume Cruise, unrecognisable in prosthetics, plays a mining magnate, who, for reasons unknown, causes an environmental catastrophe that he sets about trying to fix (or escape responsibility).
This is only superficially accurate, because there’s a movie within the movie, in a meta twist that isn’t fully explained until the last act of the film.
Audiences don’t often enjoy being hoodwinked, and critics even less so, which is why your willingness to go along with the conceit will largely determine if you enjoy the movie.
For those who can, you’re rewarded with a significant payoff, something to think about on the way home and a host of brilliant performances from Riz Ahmed, John Goodman and, of course, Cruise himself.
Think Wes Anderson crossed with Dr Strangelove, with a more than a little of Inarritu’s Birdman thrown in for good measure.
Of course, dividing audiences is usually not a great recipe for success at the box office, and Digger could prove to be the biggest flop of Cruise’s seemingly bulletproof career.
But it’s certainly not the first film to polarise critics and audiences, so let’s take a look at some of Hollywood’s most divisive movies.
STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI
Rian Johnson was handed the reins to the Star Wars franchise for the middle instalment of the most recent trilogy, and it’s fair to say the response to this 2017 move was mixed.
While critics praised Johnson’s vision for that galaxy far, far away, many diehard fans felt it was the worst movie in the series, and the film because an unlikely hot-button topic in online culture wars.
Either way, it’s hard to argue that having Luke Skywalker milk an alien, then drink its milk fresh from the teat, is good cinema.
THE TREE OF LIFE
This epic drama from auteur Terence Malick was so divisive it received an ovation AND boos when it screened at Cannes in 2011, where it also won the Palme d’Or prize for best film.
The Tree of Life was too turgidly paced and obtuse for mainstream audiences, who got sucked in by the presence of Brad Pitt, but critics ultimately praised Malick’s ambition.
It was nominated for best director, best picture and best cinematography at the Academy Awards.
THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST
Forget the critics, when you’ve got leading Jewish groups calling your depiction of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ an act of anti-semitism, you know your movie is dividing people.
In hindsight, it seems less surprising that a movie directed by Mel Gibson and starring Jim Caviezel, an actor who has repeated QAnon talking points, would be so controversial, but it was at the time.
Despite that, this brutal, 2004 religious epic made more than $896 million dollars at the global box office.
It’s safe to assume Gibson’s two-part sequel, The Resurrection of the Christ: Part One and Two, will be at least as polarising when the first instalment hits cinemas next year.
NAPOLEON DYNAMITE
Not only did this oddball 2004 comedy divide critics and audiences, it broke the algorithm that recommends content to Netflix users.
The streaming giant famously offered a US$1 million reward to the data scientist who could re-tune the algorithm to reliably predict which users would enjoy watching it.
