Digger Review: Alejandro G. Iñárritu's Audacious Satire Is Saved By Tom Cruise

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"Digger," Alejandro G. Ińárritu's new dark satire, immediately recalls Stanley Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" from 1964. Kubrick's film is one of the most seminal political satires ever made, one that perfectly encapsulates how authority figures have always existed on a spectrum of buffoonery, from the more benign to the tyrannical. Political satire will always be relevant no matter the year or the issues. That said, in a modern era so volatile that increasing resentment with those in power has not only become non-partisan but is quickly bubbling up into outrage, can a film like "Digger" and its grotesque, knowingly theatrical, thinly-veiled fictional versions of the current establishment work as a dark comedy, or is it just more preaching to the choir via Kubrickian cosplay?

The answer turns out to be both yes and no. Iñárritu and his co-screenwriters Alexander Dinelaris, Nicolás Giacobone, and Sabina Berman give "Digger" an arch, abrasive style of humor that's more loud than funny. At least, that's what the film delivers at first, before an audacious twist occurs which recontextualizes everything. While revealing that twist would spoil the experience, suffice to say that "Digger" is only intermittently funny, and its awkward grasp of humor is its Achilles heel. 

However, once the full scope of the story and its structure is revealed, "Digger" becomes something more engaging and thought-provoking altogether. Bridging the gulf is Tom Cruise in the title role, and it's through his performance that the film really opens up. As a satire, "Digger" may be too impassioned to be amusing. Yet it's this bold passion which gives "Digger" a bite and a power that hasn't been seen since Kubrick's own screed.

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Alejandro González Iñárritu is a frustrating auteur. When he's working in service of a gritty, character-driven drama, he's absolutely fantastic, as with "21 Grams" and "The Revenant." However, he also has a self-indulgent streak, taking flights of fancy that are intellectually stimulating while being emotionally distant. The pretentiousness of "Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)" and "Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths" can be seen in their lengthy full titles alone, never mind their rambling narratives and barely-sketched characters. Iñárritu has always struck me as a highly intelligent, brave artist whose undeniable skills behind the camera are sometimes thwarted by his desire to make the sorts of films he admires yet doesn't quite have a knack for. He is not, for example, Luis Buñuel or Federico Fellini.

"Digger" nearly falls prey to the indulgences which plagued "Birdman" and "Bardo," presenting the audience with a fanciful bit of distancing that, when combined with the abrasive dark humor, could've derailed the entire film. Fortunately, this time Iñárritu isn't making a movie largely about himself. Instead, "Digger" is pitched somewhere between a cry of anguish at the state of the world as well as a paean to the enduring importance of art and artists to culture, especially when they're in defiance of the establishment. "Digger" may wear its Stanley Kubrick and John Cassavetes influences on its sleeve (a literal poster for "Opening Night" appears in one scene), yet the film ends up demonstrating a depth that honors those artists, even if accidentally. There are echoes of the work of folks like Charlie Chaplin, Eugene Ionesco, and others. "Digger" is certainly more intellectual than emotional, but it ends up being moving in spite of itself.

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The emotional content of "Digger" is largely contributed by its cast, and none more so than Tom Cruise himself. Cruise, of course, has enjoyed a reputation over the last couple decades appearing in "Mission: Impossible" sequels and other action films as a daredevil, someone willing to literally lay his life on the line for cinema. Playing the venal, gleefully corrupt, unrepentant billionaire oil tycoon Digger Rockwell can be seen as another type of stunt, one that risks his Q-rating more than his neck. Although the actor has appeared in a handful of grittier dramas in between his recent blockbusters, his "Digger" performance feels like it's on a level that Cruise hasn't attempted since 1999 with his turns in "Eyes Wide Shut" and "Magnolia." Even though his prosthetic makeup for Digger recalls Les Grossman in "Tropic Thunder," that character was always intended to be lovably awful, while "Digger" sees Cruise dare to be genuinely unlikable again, not just morally but visually, too.

Again, there's another layer to Cruise's performance as Digger that I can't reveal, but it adds a depth to his work and the film itself which makes "Digger" function as a rather brilliant meta-commentary on "Tom Cruise the actor," in a similar manner to how Stanley Kubrick and Paul Thomas Anderson used him. Cruise may be infamous for largely keeping his opinions to himself these days, yet his performance here (let alone his choice to do this film) says a lot about how much he understands his own influence as a celebrity as well as his range as an actor. What's more, his bravery in front of the camera clearly influences his fellow castmates, as Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Jesse Plemons and Sophie Wilde turn in similarly indelible portrayals.

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"Digger" is not exactly a crowd pleaser, nor does it want to be. It's the tale of a near-apocalypse, caused by Digger Rockwell drilling for oil under dangerous conditions. Digger's solution is a "the only way out is through" attitude to the calamity, offering not placating reassurances or two-faced promises but instead horrific, uncomfortable truths about civilization being too far gone in its convenience and complacency to turn the tide (literal and figurative, in this case). In terms of real-life figures, Digger is an unholy blend of oil barons, Big Tech CEOs, and the current administration. "Digger" is not a comfortable film by any means, which makes it hard to love.

Yet it is vibrant, humanistic, and important, and that's what makes it so admirable. It's hard to think of another recent film produced by a major studio that's as angry, pointed, and unadorned as this one is. Even last year's "One Battle After Another" was a riveting character-driven thriller while being just as incisive a political film. "Digger" has no sugar coating of genre to help its pill go down. Instead, Iñárritu expects us to swallow it while the curtain closes on Warner Bros. Pictures, in advance of what seems like an inevitable (and inevitably damaging) merger. In the face of all this real life adversity, Iñárritu and Cruise make "Digger" into a promise as much as it's a red alert. Whatever tomorrow may hold, whether it's the literal end of the world or just the end of modern life as we know it, there will be the possibility for humanity to dig itself out from its own grave.

/Film Rating: 7 out of 10

"Digger" opens in theaters on October 2, 2026.