Tom Cruise has rarely played a character as offbeat as Digger Rockwell, an eccentric oil baron thrust into the role of trying to save humanity from a disaster of his own making.
Directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu (21 Grams, Amores Perros, Birdman), in his first English-language film since The Revenant, this apocalyptic satire blends dark comedy with themes of wealth, power and environmental ruin. Iñárritu co-wrote the script with his Birdman collaborators Nicolás Giacobone and Alexander Dinelaris Jr., along with Sabina Berman. The ambitious mix doesn’t always integrate its many ideas seamlessly, but it’s refreshing to see a big-budget Hollywood movie willing to be as big and as bonkers as this is.
It’s also a film that keeps its cards close. Some things only become clear well into the running time. The less you know going in, the better, and I’d urge anyone planning to see it to avoid spoilers.
Cruise’s performance is a standout success. Playing Digger Rockwell lets him break away from the action roles that have defined much of his recent career, which for years has meant Mission: Impossible and Top Gun: Maverick.
Playing Digger as bombastic, arrogant and deeply unpredictable, Cruise is fully committed. The heavy prosthetics could easily have swallowed the performance; instead he uses them as a springboard, and the result is both awe-inspiring and utterly ridiculous. He plays Digger with a willingness to look ridiculous that few stars at his level would risk. For me, it’s his most adventurous work since Magnolia, and that’s a high bar.
The supporting cast is equally compelling. Riz Ahmed delivers an outstanding performance, playing his role with real intelligence, while John Goodman, Sandra Hüller, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Jesse Plemons seamlessly inhabit Iñárritu’s ever-stranger world.
Visually, Digger impresses. Emmanuel Lubezki’s cinematography gives the movie a grand sense of scale. He is said to have shot the film entirely on VistaVision, a 1950s variant of 35mm that runs the film strip sideways, and the richness of the images is hard to miss on a big screen. The production design, led by Oscar winner Dennis Gassner, paints a vivid picture of a world on the brink of collapse, dreary on purpose but meticulously detailed. Some of the imagery is genuinely breathtaking.
The score, by Cosmo Sheldrake in his narrative feature debut, is strange and eerie in a way that suits the film’s surreal quality. It builds atmosphere rather than announcing itself, shifting with the intensity of the scenes. While it might not be especially memorable, it still manages to provide just enough tension throughout.
Digger sometimes struggles under the weight of its own ambition. Juggling so many ideas, characters, and satirical targets can make the narrative feel slightly disjointed at times. Some of the comedy hits the mark perfectly, while other moments try too hard to drive a point home. But despite these issues, Digger is hard to dismiss. It’s ambitious, visually striking, and elevated by Cruise’s outstanding and very unique performance. It occasionally stumbles over its own complexity, but the imaginative spirit makes the occasional chaos worthwhile. It’s a better film than some people will claim; tense, yes, but rewarding, and far more captivating than any conventional blockbuster. It takes bold risks, and while it doesn’t always succeed, there’s plenty here to appreciate and admire.
