Digger

Grade: B-

My October 1, 2026 double feature (Digger followed by Verity) was an interesting one. I’m not one of those critics who forces a parallel between different movies just because they come out on the same weekend. Remember how people talked about the supposed similarities between Barbie and Oppenheimer? Digger and Verity don’t have much to do with each other, except for the fact that each has a thought-provoking plot twist dropped on us. I knew about both in advance. In Verity’s case, it’s because I’ve read the book, and with Digger, an early review came right out and gave it away. I still left both movies with much to muse on in my head. I’m glad I saw them together, and in that order.

Digger, from director Alejandro G. Iñárritu (Birdman, The Revenant), is the damndest movie. One of the few other times I’ve said that was in reaction to Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. And indeed, Digger’s first half hour was shaping up to be like if Anderson directed a geopolitical satire like Dr. Strangelove. We begin by meeting Tom Cruise as filthy-rich oil tycoon Digger Rockwell. As he wakes up to tend to his ailing 30-year-old cat, he gets word that his drilling operations have caused a large glacier to break off. It’s on a direct collision course with Northern Europe and is projected to cause a tsunami. Like Wes Anderson’s bottomless grab bag of ensemble actors, other characters are introduced, such as John Goodman as the president (who has cancer in a place that makes it uncomfortable to sit down), Michael Stuhlbarg as the vice president, Riz Ahmed as a scientist, and Sandra Hüller as Digger’s sister. You will wonder if the ice-breaking was actually caused by the loud monologues and overacting of the cast.

Thirty or forty minutes into it, the movie yanks the rug out from under us and basically lets us know that everything we’ve seen so far doesn’t matter. Let’s just say it has more in common with Birdman than you might have initially expected. I liked that this other layer was introduced. If it had stayed in the world that we saw established at the beginning, and just remained a Wes Andersonian Dr. Strangelove on speed, I would have written it off as another futilely didactic allegory about a political topic. Climate change, in this case.

I don’t really get on board with films that are “Have we learned anything from [this real-life event that happened]?”—because what does that even mean? Eddington was interpreted as a “Have we learned anything since Covid?” piece, but it came off for me as a shallow “We Didn’t Start the Fire” name-check of 2020 events. I’m sure there have been “Have we learned anything since 9/11?” movies. I just see it as: something happened, we all got through it, some people got better, some didn’t, and most stayed the same. Digger takes place in a future that doesn’t look too distant from our own. That could be us one day. Maybe we’re headed there. Have we learned anything since whatever happened that we were supposed to learn from?

The problem within Digger is that, after giving us that first premise and then revealing that it isn’t what we thought it was, the movie eventually takes us back into that world. By that point, we know it doesn’t matter in the way we originally thought it did, so why spend so much time there? The movie had already found a more interesting layer underneath it. Going back to the original premise makes the structure feel a little like it’s working against itself.

This is a great movie to look at, though, particularly with the sets, costumes, and lighting. Tom Cruise gives us one of the best performances of his career, and one of my favorites of the year. Once you see it, you’ll understand why the trailer couldn’t show us much, but he does more than what’s in the ads. I loved John Goodman’s energy. It made me fear for his health. Riz Ahmed (from Sound of Metal) gives the closest thing to a grounded, down-to-earth performance. Everybody is quite good, and does exactly what they’re supposed to do.

It was a very close call when it came to where I was going to land, but I am passing Digger. It takes some mightily ambitious swings. The extra layer saved the movie for me. It would have been a generic goofy throwaway if it had stayed in the same premise with which it started. Iñárritu manages to find a way to marry the two worlds, with some striking imagery at the end. I want people to see it so I’ll have someone to process the damn thing with.

Grade: B-