Peneflix MOVIE REVIEWS BY PENEFLIX
Confusing. There were moments that I reveled in my presence experiencing director Alejandro G. Inarritu’s latest film (“Amores Perros”, “The Revenant”, “Birdman”) unfortunately they were transcended by too many scenes of failed expectations, embarrassment and grotesqueness. Tom Cruise (I am a lifelong admirer) is a homely, aging billionaire oil tycoon, in thick prosthetic makeup and fat suit as “Digger Rockwell”, he is a nauseating, repulsive character, aligned with his maniacal, materialist, rant about the benefits of corporate greed; there is a fifteen minute tirade in an arena throbbing with world leaders, vacillating between hysterical approval or insane disdain with his crotch-clutching, southern-slurping epistle, apostatizing his qualifications for Messiah. Black humor could not sink further.
Wasted throughout the film are performances guaranteed for approval: John Goodman as President is ingeniously insane; Sandra Huller (“Anatomy of a Fall”, “Project Hail Mary”, “Zone of Interest”) is Digger’s half-sister and business partner, benignly uninteresting; Riz Ahmed, courageous in his choice of films (“Sound of Metal”, “The Night Of”) is formidable in the role of “ Dr. Nirav Ganesh”, a scientist and adviser to Digger, his briefness in the film added legitimacy.
There are plot twists, surprises, fine cinematography, cataclysmic acting by Cruise but it would take too much digging to encourage viewers to waste 129 minutes on bloated moralizing and tepid metaphors.
TWO & ½ STARS
Peneflix
