A film which serves as a reflection on modern day events, Oscar winning director Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Digger follows Digger Rockwell (Tom Cruise), a cartoonish lampoon of capitalism’s worst excesses who races to contain the fallout of his risky business practices.
One of Cruise’s most ambitious and challenging film roles in many years, it is refreshing to see him turning to an older character—he is 64, after all. I’m hoping this marks a pivot in his career toward playing new, interesting, following the somewhat stale run of the Mission Impossible franchise.
The film does a good job of building a grotesque image of Digger in the film’s opening. It works as a reflection of the total lack of control we have over the wealthiest members of the population, but also includes some good laugh-out-loud beats.
However, the satire does become laborious, intensive and self-gratuitous at times, with the second half falling flat for me as I struggled with how on the nose the criticism became. Modern day references detracted from the enjoyment as well. I can see why this has been described as a ‘Marmite’ kind of film, as perhaps only some can fully engage with the unique style and messaging.
I wouldn’t personally consider Digger Oscar worthy, or even in the running — however, it is a true display of Iñárritu’s interesting style established in his previous films such as Birdman (2014) most notably and marks a promising collaboration from Cruise.
“Tom Cruise at 53rd Saturn Awards 2026-02” by Kevin Paul is licensed under CC BY 4.0.
