"Digger" (Tom Cruise) is an oil gazzillionaire who cares little for safety or the environment as he determines to milk the planet of as many of it's resources as he can before someone tells him to stop. It's his multi-billion dollar operation in the Arctic that is causing consternation after a massive methane explosion releases a part of the ice shelf and sets it en-route to the low countries of Europe where catastrophe looms. Quickly in cahoots with the president (John Goodman) and finally having to listen to the only scientist in his otherwise acolytic empire prepared to deliver some home truths - "Ganesh" (Riz Ahmed) they consider their options. Get in front of the news: tell the truth and own the problem; feign ignorance and let a now rather angry nature take it's course or do they get the bombers out? All the while this is playing out, we are aware that this is actually all part of a complicated stage play entitled "Fossil Fools" and that "Digger" is really "Curtis", an actor who is having some family troubles and who isn't entirely focussed on the job in hand. Now juggling both scenarios, we embark on quite a scathing satire of global geopolitics that culminates in probably the best performance I've ever seen from Tom Cruise. His animated soliloquy to a suitably gray/beige parliament towards the end about the extent of public complicity in the current environmental situation is potent, thought-provoking and is one of those monologues that has a lot more truth to it than we, watching, might care to acknowledge. Sure, it plays to many a stereotype along the way and it tends to exaggerate for theatrical effect now and again, but by blending satire into scenarios that might readily seem plausible - especially just about everything featuring the on-form Goodman, it hits the mark more often than not. It's not just aiming for the low-hanging fruit of corporate excess, but perhaps with rather more sophistry suggests that that greed is just as prevalent amongst the convenience culture masses who have, for generations, taken low-cost energy and travel for granted. Maybe it's more luck than judgement on the part of Alejandro Iñárritu but the substance of this film really does resonate strongly right now and with Cruise, Goodman, their make up artistes and some seriously poignant writing unafraid to take populist cinema firmly into the realms of hitherto largely avoided, but still quite darkly humorous, controversy - some of this is really quite profound and it makes few bones about speculating that the most powerful people in the world nowadays have rarely, if ever, been anywhere near any ballot papers.
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