Mixed first reactions for Tom Cruise’s Digger

Alejandro González Iñárritu’s new film was shown yesterday to the American press. And the least we can say is that the first opinions are very divided.

Digger will not leave anyone indifferent, that’s clear!

The new film by Alejandro González Iñárritu seems to have given birth to an object as ambitious as it is strange, allowing Tom Cruise to deliver a singular performance. The star plays Digger Rockwell, a wealthy oil tycoon whose activities cause a global catastrophe that he will then try to repair. The film will be released on September 30 in France, and the first American journalists to have discovered it are already oscillating between overwhelming enthusiasm and deep skepticism.

The critic of ScreenRantspeaks of a “masterpiece”while he admits to having “hated the trailers”. He presents Digger as “an extremely important film” and his new favorite for the Best Picture Oscar.

A Chicago journalist talks about “his favorite film of 2026”. He describes the whole thing as a mixture of Kubrick and Black Mirrorwhile believing that the result remains profoundly original. And above all, it places Tom Cruise’s performance “among the best of his career.”

But the film is clearly not unanimous. The criticism ofIndieWire saw a “bold and magnificent auteur film” while warning that he risks “not to appeal to the general public“. She also expects that reviews will be very divided on Cruise, although a long scene in an amphitheater could allow him to convince.

His colleague from Next Best Picturedescribes the actor’s performance as his “more dynamic and interesting for years”while speaking of the film as a “hollow failure”. According to him, Iñárritu favors so much “big ideas and visual extravaganzas” that the film lacks depth and humanity. On the other hand, he praises the photography, the sets, the sound and the makeup.

On the side ofReversewe say to ourselves “very mixed”. The journalist explains that she liked certain things, notably Cruise’s performance, but that she found other elements “absolutely unbearable”.

The critic of Varietyis more nuanced: he respects the ambition of the project, salutes the work of Tom Cruise and John Goodman, but warns: “Digger is not what audiences expect, and audience reaction may well be the ultimate test of Tom Cruise’s star power. The art direction and photography are impressive. That said, everything doesn’t fit together perfectly, and I would have liked the film to embrace more absurdity and satire.“

Eventually, IndieWire ensures that the film “not only gives Tom Cruise his best performance since Magnolia, but it’s also one of the most visually inventive, conceptually daring and unpredictable studio films ever made.” And he ends by greeting the “aesthetic risks“taken by Iñárritu…