The studio is likely banking on the star power of Cruise and the auteur prestige of Iñárritu to sell this as a bold, audacious statement on the climate crisis that demands attention.
Critics are whispering that this is a colossal misfire, comparing it to bloated disasters like Babylon and Amsterdam, with one reviewer noting the film disappears 'up its own ass' for two hours.
Release date: Friday, Oct. 2. Runtime: 2 hours 9 minutes. Cast includes Tom Cruise, Riz Ahmed, and John Goodman. The review explicitly states the film is 'Dead and buried, or ought to be.'
If you thought Don't Look Up was bad, buckle up. Digger is a smug, self-indulgent mess that mistakes volume for vision.
Hold onto your popcorn, folks, because Tom Cruise and Alejandro G. Iñárritu have delivered what critics are calling a 'match made in showboating hell.' The Hollywood Reporter’s scathing review of Digger, set to release on Friday, October 2, 2026, doesn't just throw shade; it incinerates the film. Described as a 'shallow satire insufferably pleased with itself,' the movie stars Cruise as Digger Rockwell, a blowhard oil tycoon facing a global catastrophe of his own making.
The review, penned with the kind of venom that only true drama fans crave, suggests that putting two outsize egos in the same room with no one holding the reins resulted in a 'spectacularly obnoxious' cinematic experience. The plot, as outlined by the reviewer, revolves around Digger Rockwell, an overbearing boor named for the shovel his grandfather used to dig up the family fortune. Cruise, who reportedly spent hours in the makeup chair to look his age, channels a mix of his Magnolia motivational speaker and Tropic Thunder studio exec personas.
He’s surrounded by a powerhouse cast including Riz Ahmed as a scientist, John Goodman as a bellowing President Compson, and Sandra Hüller as his truculent sister. Yet, the review argues that the 'strident overacting' and 'witless writing' drown out any potential virtuosity. The film’s central conflict is methane gas bubbling up from the ocean floor due to Rockwell’s drilling has caused a crack in a glacial ice bed, threatening to trigger a tsunami in Europe.
But Digger, true to his character, is more worried about the oil rig than the human casualties. What really gets under the skin of the critic is the film’s 'meta' nature, which they claim causes the movie to 'disappear up its own ass.' Comparisons are drawn to other colossal misfires like Damien Chazelle’s Babylon and David O. Russell’s Amsterdam, films by directors 'drunk on their exalted reputations.' The review notes that while Iñárritu found sardonic humor in Birdman, comedy is clearly not his forte here.
The film is rated R and runs a grueling 2 hours and 9 minutes. The reviewer explicitly states, 'Dead and buried, or ought to be,' regarding the film's potential legacy. It’s a heavy-handed cataclysm scenario that the critic feels is 'pure political theater,' failing to offer any glimmers of hope or genuine insight into the climate crisis.
The drama escalates when Digger summons the President and his cabinet to his palatial mansion, stuffed with hunting trophies, to control the narrative. He declares, 'Oil is the mother’s milk of Earth,' hurling anger back at politicians who want the commodity. Despite the grand visual scale, shot in VistaVision by cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, the review concludes that the film is 'less interesting for its visual textures' than its 'exhausting effect of all its aggressive auteurist grandstanding.' With the IMAX countdown warning, 'Watch a movie or be a part of one,' the critic doubts mainstream audiences will want to be part of this 'bludgeoning ordeal.' It’s a scandalous flop waiting to happen, and the tea is already spilling.
