{"id":779446,"date":"2026-09-23T00:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T00:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/779446\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T00:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T00:52:10","slug":"digger-movie-first-reactions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/779446\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Digger’ Movie First Reactions"},"content":{"rendered":"

First reactions to Alejandro Gonz\u00e1lez I\u00f1\u00e1rritu\u2019s \u201cDigger\u201d<\/a> are officially in after early New York and Los Angeles press screenings over the last few days. The London premiere is meanwhile underway. Along with the upcoming \u201cDune: Part Three,\u201d the apocalyptic satire starring Tom Cruise<\/a> as an ostentatious oil baron in \u201cDr. Strangelove\u201d mode is one of Warner Bros.\u2019 major fall Oscar players.<\/p>\n

Four-time nominee Cruise, 64, has never won a competitive Oscar despite claiming an Honorary Academy Award last year. The \u201cTop Gun: Maverick\u201d star is already on the campaign trail<\/a>,<\/a>\u00a0with a first-look GQ interview that was hardly dishy but included a semi-shirtless photo spread\u00a0suggesting a potentially vulnerable tell-all. (An empty promise, alas, in a mostly boilerplate sit-down with the global star.)<\/p>\n

\"Tom<\/a> \"'Iron<\/a> <\/p>\n

In the ambitiously scaled film<\/a> co-written by I\u00f1\u00e1rritu with Alexander Dinelaris and Nicol\u00e1s Giacobone (\u201cBirdman\u201d) plus Sabina Berman, Cruise plays the outsize, oblivious-to-the-outside-world oil tycoon Digger<\/a> Rockwell. He\u2019s told that drilling in Greenland has not only caused a dire expulsion of methane gas but that it\u2019s also dislodged an ice shelf from a glacier, and it\u2019s barreling toward Europe, with the potential to trigger a tsunami and cause cataclysmic disaster. <\/p>\n

His chaotic orbit includes Riz Ahmed as scientist Ganesh, Sandra H\u00fcller as Digger\u2019s irascible half-sister and business partner, John Goodman as the dictatorial U.S. president with anal cancer, Michael Stuhlbarg as the feckless vice president, and Jesse Plemons as a mystery figure whose role comes into focus late in the film. There\u2019s also a sure-to-be-divisive twist fairly early in the movie that upends its entire premise.<\/p>\n

First reactions are predictably all over the map for \u201cDigger,\u201d ranging from praise for its audaciousness as a studio film to criticism for its \u201cunfunny\u201d satire about the end of the world. Either way, \u201cthe divide on this one is going to be wide,\u201d as Variety\u2019s Clayton Davis noted. IndieWire\u2019s Anne Thompson called it \u201ca brave and gorgeous art film.\u201d Critics are especially divided about the over-the-top performances, though both Cruise and Ahmed\u2019s turns already draw strong praise. We\u2019ve rounded up tweets below.<\/p>\n

I\u00f1\u00e1rritu\u2019s trusted cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki returns, with Oscar-winning production designer Dennis Gassner (\u201cBugsy\u201d) supplying an intentionally dreary yet meticulously rendered end-times vibe. Cruise is also layered beneath a great deal of prosthetics work<\/a>, which the actor claims he notched down from taking six hours to just one in the makeup chair.<\/p>\n

IndieWire previously reported a $125 million budget (or higher, per some insiders) on \u201cDigger\u201d \u2014 hardly I\u00f1\u00e1rritu\u2019s highest when stacked up against his Best Director-winning 2015 wintry survival epic \u201cThe Revenant.\u201d With marketing and awards campaign spend, the film will need to make upwards of $300 million worldwide to break even, according to an insider we spoke to.<\/p>\n

See a sampling of Tuesday\u2019s first reactions to \u201cDigger\u201d below. The film opens wide, including on IMAX and in VistaVision in several locations, on October 2.<\/p>\n

Digger: watching Alejandro Gonz\u00e1lez I\u00f1\u00e1rritu try to construct a joke is like watching Frank Gehry try to draw a straight line.<\/p>\n

\u2014 david ehrlich (@davidehrlich) September 22, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

A.G. I\u00f1\u00e1rritu’s Digger is a brave and gorgeous art film that will not score with mainstream audiences but will play best for the Academy, especially crafts and actors. But critics will divide on Cruise. The tour-de-force amphitheater scene might put him across. Riz Ahmed is fab.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Anne Thompson (@akstanwyck) September 22, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

DIGGER: The problem with continuing to make statements about your own art and reflect on your own legacy is that you’ll eventually ruin both. A self-indulgent miscalculation from end to end.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Ryan Lattanzio (@ryanlattanzio) September 22, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

DIGGER: Alejandro Gonz\u00e1lez I\u00f1\u00e1rritu continues to take big swings and make bold choices as a writer and filmmaker. While this film certainly won\u2019t work for everyone, I found the pairing of I\u00f1\u00e1rritu and Tom Cruise to be an engaging and one of a kind experience. Cruise really does\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/1oOxHBGAJh<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Scott Menzel (@ScottDMenzel) September 22, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

“Digger” is not what people are expecting \u2014 and how audiences react may be the ultimate test of Tom Cruise’s star power. I respect the swing and what Alejandro Gonz\u00e1lez I\u00f1\u00e1rritu is going for. Tom Cruise and John Goodman are delivering stellar work (Sophie Wilde might be best in\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/egbp5ExWVj<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Clayton Davis (@ByClaytonDavis) September 22, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

Didn’t realize I\u00f1\u00e1rritu was pretty much making his own DR. STRANGELOVE w\/ DIGGER, until\u2014as signposted from the v first frame\u2014it turns into something else that the BIRDMAN director knows how to navigate with panache. Loved Cruise, & the film’s audacious existential strangeness.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Tomris Laffly (@TomiLaffly) September 22, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

DIGGER is a very mixed bag. You\u2019ll get what it\u2019s saying, and the concept is interesting, but it doesn\u2019t trust the audience enough not to hold its hand. Riz Ahmed is great. The Cruise performance is solid. Hard to do satire when the absurdity is so prominent in reality. pic.twitter.com\/SzhcTaztWB<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Kristen Lopez (@kristenklopez) September 22, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

I cannot say that Digger is very good, although I could tell what I\u00f1arritu and Cruise were going for. There is a major reveal (not a twist) towards the end that almost justifies the craziness\u2026 but it will be a tough movie to review, and I expect a HORRENDOUS CinemaScore.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Edward Douglas (@EDouglasWW) September 22, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

Digger is a mess. Tom Cruise and Alejandro G. I\u00f1\u00e1rritu are taking a massive swing here, but despite some great production design and a commitment to their big choices, not a whole lot works here. Cruise is good and Riz Ahmed is a highlight, but man this wasn\u2019t enjoyable.#Digger<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/dCQEtDlSYG<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Joey Magidson (@JoeyMagidson) September 22, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

Tom Cruise, as you probably expect, is *going for it* in DIGGER, which makes me want to like it. Though I find some plot choices baffling. There are very interesting moments in a meta, Cruise\u2019s career way, but MAVERICK did them better. (It\u2019s also kind of generally unpleasant.)<\/p>\n

\u2014 Mike Ryan (@mikeryan) September 22, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cDigger\u201d not only showcases Tom Cruise\u2019s best performance since \u201cMagnolia,\u201d it\u2019s one of the most visually inventive, conceptually audacious, and unpredictable studio movies ever made. Takes so many bold aesthetic swings it makes \u201cBardo\u201d look like an episode of \u201cThe Golden Girls.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Jim Hemphill (@JimmyHemphill) September 22, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

DIGGER is a timely examination of powerful, wealthy narcissists manipulating the public narrative for their gain. It is very goofy, though not particularly funny, while also dissecting itself being this way. A satire about the role of satire. Fascinating stuff, (1\/2)<\/p>\n

\u2014 The Oscar Expert (@expert_oscar_2) September 22, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

DIGGER is not at all what it seems on the surface. What begins as an over-the-top comedy of gigantic satirical proportions suddenly turns into a meta, somber commentary on the bleak state of the world we\u2019re inevitably heading toward, our inability to stop it, and what we\u2019ll\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/AYTaRaGNYl<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Matt Neglia @NYFF (@NextBestPicture) September 22, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n