{"id":634337,"date":"2026-09-24T08:26:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T08:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/634337\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T08:26:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T08:26:12","slug":"digger-first-look-reaction-tom-cruises-wild-new-film-is-as-polarising-as-they-come","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/634337\/","title":{"rendered":"Digger first-look reaction \u2013\u00a0Tom Cruise\u2019s wild new film is as polarising as they come"},"content":{"rendered":"

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When the trailer for Digger<\/a>, the new Tom Cruise<\/a> film from Birdman director Alejandro Gonz\u00e1lez I\u00f1\u00e1rritu<\/a>, was released, something didn\u2019t feel quite right.<\/p>\n

The clip teased an absurd farce<\/a> 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 \u2013 and there is a twist that will make or break the film for many.<\/p>\n

I\u00f1\u00e1rritu himself asked critics who saw the film ahead of the release \u2013 including The Independent \u2013 to remain tight-lipped on the film\u2019s surprises, and that\u2019s exactly what we\u2019ve done in our first reaction to the film, which you can watch above.<\/p>\n

\"It'sIt’s Tom Cruise as you’ve never seen him before in ‘Digger’ (Warner Bros Pictures)<\/p>\n

Sure enough, the film \u2013 which almost dares the audience to dislike it for large swathes of its running time \u2013 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.\u00a0I\u00f1\u00e1rritu, 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.<\/p>\n

The film is reminiscent of Adam McKay\u2019s Vice \u2013 a form-playing biopic about Dick Cheney, starring Christian Bale \u2013 and Todd Phillips\u2019s heavily maligned Joker follow-up, Joker: Folie \u00e0 Deux, which dared to try something a little different from what people expected. However, it\u2019s worth noting that Digger is not a musical as many people have predicted.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s certainly a likelihood.<\/p>\n

Other actors who impress in the film include John Goodman, who\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\"TomTom Cruise and Alejandro Gonz\u00e1lez I\u00f1\u00e1rritu at the world premiere of \u2018Digger\u2019 in London (Getty Images for Warner Bros.)<\/p>\n

But it doesn\u2019t seem like I\u00f1\u00e1rritu 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.<\/p>\n

Digger is out on 2 October.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Membership today.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":634338,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[93,61,60,270],"class_list":["post-634337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=634337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/634338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}