Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths

I wasn't expecting that.

Digger is the eighth film for Alejandro Iñárritu, his first movie since Bardo.

And for people who are wondering, Digger does not have a subtitle, which is not uncommon for recent movies of his.

The Revenant also did not have one.

I accept that as a reasonable reason to make fun of Digger's commercial failure.

I think a lot of the other reasons to kind of point and laugh at Digger, I think, are just kind of snide.

Because I am on the side of filmmakers, including Inuratu, who before this movie, I'd always been positive in all his movies, including Bardo, which I thought was very flawed but did work.

I think Naruto is taking not just huge swings, but huge chances.

This is a movie that is...

It sort of is of a piece with, like, some of Alejandro Iñárritu's other movies, like Birdman or Bardo, his last movie, in that, like, very, I would say, introspective kind of self-loathing movies that are about, like... that are of someone who wants to be taken incredibly serious, but also like worries that they might be a fraud.

And so like, I would, I would say this is a, a strange lovey in satire of the climate crisis that I, I found more obnoxious than funny.

And I will get into more details about that later.

And with that big of a swing, it, of course, is going to get a big range of reactions, which is what we have seen with Digger.

both Alejandro Gonzalez in Yartu's previous film, Bardo, and now again here with Digger.

Although I would even say more so with Digger, probably in terms of the love it or hate it audience out there.

This is very much a 50-50 movie.

And I can tell you, before we officially start with opening thoughts, I just saw this film again for a second time last night.

and i hate to say this but i think it might be growing on me so let's dig in tom we'll start off with you what did you think of digger

well matt i don't want to compare working a film festival with going to war but i have to say that i had a lot of ptsd watching digger i flashed back to four years ago when i was one of the few select individuals to enjoy the entire three-hour version of Bardo that played at the Venice Film Festival.

And Venice, as Josh knows and anybody who's worked there, can be a very vocal festival, and they made their dissatisfaction very loudly, very quickly.

This is a return for Chivo to a, a Iñárritu film.

They, they took some time off on Bardo.

The music is by Cosmo Sheldrake.

In addition to Cruise, Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Sandra Hüller, Michael Stuhlbarg, Robert John Burke, Emma D'Arcy, Sophie Wilde, and Josie, Jesse Plemons appear in the film.

And I've been reading some of the reviews this morning, and people have got their knives out for this movie-

Yeah

... which I find really interesting, and that has not typically been the case for Iñárritu in the first wave of reaction for most of his films all the way up till Bardo.

And I don't see this as like a hateable, disastrous nightmare of a movie at all.

Yeah, saw that.

Um, the only one I don't think I've seen is Bardo.

I have not seen Bardo either, yeah.

I haven't seen that, and that's just because I think it was like, I think what is the benefit of this movie, like as far as, like, the purpose of Why Not Take is, like, we talk about what we like and dug about it, and hopefully you get a sense of whether you're gonna go to the movie.

[coughs] Excuse me, and whether you should, like, go out and see it.

But yeah, again, it's the basic one because it won everything, but it's basic because it's true there are cliches for a reason so i i like that one

okay cody derrick's so here's the thing i like josh am a hater maybe not so much uh i'm i i think i go in with a little bit no offense josh more of an open mind perhaps it's my brand i i embrace it yeah listen we all have our we all have our enemies it's fun um our one-sided enemies i should say That being said, I remember being slightly surprised by how much I enjoyed Bardo.

Granted, that means it's like a 6 out of 10, nothing crazy.

But I think that is one that is reckoning with the kind of – How do I put this? With the really frustrating qualities of a Naruto film and his perspective that I've wrestled with in his past films, especially in Birdman.

Unlike in most Naruto movies, it's mostly like a quiet movie with little dialogue, which is great because then it's just cinematography.

But other than that, it's kind of hollow.

But I'll say Bardo.

Okay, all right.

And then the seventh film got mixed reviews and it still got Oscar nominated for best cinematography.

So what's, what are we doing with Bardo at this point? Are we even getting to it? Cause this was supposed to be our window to get to it.

We're not getting to it.

We're screwed right now.

Here's what you have to do.

Otherwise, you're a grade A jerk.

You have to watch Bardo, and I have to watch Bardo.

If we're going to skip the episode that reviews Digger, but we don't watch Bardo, who are we, and why do we deserve to do this?