Dakota Cupples, Contributing Writer
Can we in good conscience create art that critiques systems of oppression when the same money creating and funding our art comes from the pockets of our oppressors? What are the consequences of making Elon Musk a meme?
“Digger,” Alejandro González Iñárritu’s new dark comedy film, is a call for artists to consider whether art is truly an effective way to incite change.
The majority of theatre and film is privately funded by investors or wealthy people who perform philanthropy to make themselves look better. Bill Gates has a foundation that gives billions to charity every year, and a portion of that goes to the arts. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, only about roughly 10% of American art was publicly funded, the numbers later being inflated due to COVID-19 relief efforts, according to the National Arts Action Summit. The rest comes from sponsorships, philanthropy or personal income.
If you are planning to be a working artist today, chances are you will have to reckon with the fact that the ultra-wealthy are at least part of the reason why you can share your art with others.
Many films and TV shows have attempted political satire in recent years such as “The Boys,” “Don’t Look Up” and “Eddington,” but failed to stick the landing and ask for something more from their audiences. “Digger” is a satire about satire. The film tells how its own art and climate change satire is compromised because it was created by a corporation. It explores what can make satire effective today and art’s true impact in 2026.
I do not want to spoil the movie, because “Digger” is most impactful going in blind. However, one message is central: art, in itself, is not an action. We must take action ourselves.
We can make a hundred movies about the horrors of climate change and evil billionaires, but is that going to stop Sam Altman from continuing to introduce AI into the U.S. government? Is that going to stop people from “drilling, baby, drilling?” Does making these films harm society more by creating a mythos for these men, rather than showing them as human beings, the same as you and me?
Calling Elon Musk a loser on an app that he owns is fun. It is really cathartic, but did it stop him from creating DOGE and terminating thousands of government jobs? To these people, all press is good press. If you are talking about him on social media, he is probably making money off it.
We make jokes to process what is happening. However, in doing so, we are also being desensitised, so the next time Musk pushes fascism to us on the news, we do not grasp the magnitude of the situation. Instead of our social media timelines being filled with what can be done, it is just hundreds of thousands of memes. In the end, these billionaires become less like human beings that can be stopped and more like mythological figures that are above all recourse.
However, art and its impact should not be diminished. As human beings, we need art to express and process the world around us.
But to change the world we need both art and action. Art opens our minds and makes us believe in what is possible; action puts that into practice to allow us to achieve it. Art is simply the means, not the end.
“Digger” was brought to you by Warner Brothers, a company that just famously merged with Paramount-Skydance to create yet another media monopoly. Skydance CEO David Ellison does not care that this movie is about him, his friends and people like him, because at the end of the day, his pockets will still be lined with the profit that this type of social commentary brings him. The people at these companies do not care that last year’s Best Picture Winner, “One Battle After Another,” is about their harmful actions — it grossed $200 million worldwide, giving them even more control over our lives.
Iñárritu wants you to put your money where your mouth is — to take action, but also recognize how billionaires have rigged the system to rely on their companies for almost everything, including the creation of art.
You can try to create your own indie film studio or self-fund your art, but where will that get you? Will you be able to make it as big as A24, who now has a deal with Google’s DeepMind AI? Will you become the next NEON? Whether we like it or not, money makes the world go round.
So, what is the point? Why spend money to see Digger? Why write this article if our art is not as impactful as we think?
Musk, Altman and the ultra-wealthy in their circle want hopeless people that turn their brains off, scroll on Instagram Reels all day and do nothing. We need fellow artists (and everyday people) to think more critically about the world around them and the art they create. “Digger” is a vessel to do just that. To pause your painting and pick up a goddamn picket sign. Love it or hate it, Tom Cruise fan or Tom Cruise hater, “Digger” wants you to take the first step.
Dig or be dug. Come on cowboys, we got work to do.