Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Membership today.
Already a member?
Log in
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Read more
When the trailer for Digger, the new Tom Cruise film from Birdman director Alejandro González Iñárritu, was released, something didn’t feel quite right.
The clip teased an absurd farce centred on a megalomaniacal tycoon whose hunger for power causes a global catastrophe he struggles to contain. But rumours abounded that there was something else about the film being kept secret from viewers. It turns out that is true – and there is a twist that will make or break the film for many.
Iñárritu himself asked critics who saw the film ahead of the release – including The Independent – to remain tight-lipped on the film’s surprises, and that’s exactly what we’ve done in our first reaction to the film, which you can watch above.
It’s Tom Cruise as you’ve never seen him before in ‘Digger’ (Warner Bros Pictures)
Sure enough, the film – which almost dares the audience to dislike it for large swathes of its running time – has split critics down the middle and seems to have received the most polarising response to any Cruise film to date. This is clearly by design. Iñárritu, who conceived the story with Sabina Berman and Jez Butterworth, has shot for something rather different, and something that should be experienced to formulate your own opinion on the outcome.
The film is reminiscent of Adam McKay’s Vice – a form-playing biopic about Dick Cheney, starring Christian Bale – and Todd Phillips’s heavily maligned Joker follow-up, Joker: Folie à Deux, which dared to try something a little different from what people expected. However, it’s worth noting that Digger is not a musical as many people have predicted.
Cruise, 64, is hoping for his fourth acting Oscar nomination for Digger, following Born on the Fourth of July (1989), Jerry Maguire (1996) and Magnolia (1999). On the evidence of his all-in committed performance in Digger, it’s certainly a likelihood.
Other actors who impress in the film include John Goodman, who’s on explosive form, as well as Riz Ahmed and Michael Stuhlbarg, who play wide-eyed advisers to Digger who get caught up in the impending doom.
Tom Cruise and Alejandro González Iñárritu at the world premiere of ‘Digger’ in London (Getty Images for Warner Bros.)
But it doesn’t seem like Iñárritu will be adding a third Best Director Oscar to his shelf, after winning two consecutive prizes in a row, in 2015 and 2016, for Birdman and The Revenant. Digger, which boasts impressive production design, has a better chance in the technical categories.
Digger is out on 2 October.