Digger Review: Iñárritu's Billionaire Meltdown Comedy

Tom Cruise plays Digger Rockwell, the most powerful man in the world, who has just unleashed a catastrophe of his own making. The film opens in the aftermath: Digger, holed up in a glass tower, is scrambling to spin the impending doom as his own act of salvation. Meanwhile, his chief advisor Ganesh (Riz Ahmed) tries to keep the wheels on, President Compson (John Goodman) hovers between complicity and panic, and a mysterious operative named Emma (Sandra Hüller) circles with her own agenda. What follows is a frantic, farcical race against time as Digger attempts to prove he is humanity's savior before the disaster he's unleashed destroys everything. The plot is deliberately thin - a skeleton for Iñárritu to hang his set pieces and diatribes on - but it moves with the momentum of a thriller.

Let's start with Cruise. The man has spent four decades as Hollywood's most reliable movie star, but here he dismantles that image with gleeful abandon. Digger is a monster of entitlement, a man who has convinced himself that his wealth and vision make him infallible. Cruise plays him with a manic grin that never reaches his eyes, and a physicality that oscillates between coiled energy and outright slapstick. There's a scene where he tries to deliver a solemn address to the nation while his teleprompter malfunctions, and the way Cruise spirals from confidence to rage to pathetic pleading is a masterclass in comic humiliation. It's a performance that recalls his work in Magnolia but with the volume turned up to eleven.

The supporting cast is uniformly excellent, though some are underused. Riz Ahmed brings a weary dignity to Ganesh, the only person in the room who sees the abyss clearly. John Goodman is perfect as the blustering President Compson, a man who traded his soul for access and knows it. Sandra Hüller, fresh off her Oscar-nominated work in Anatomy of a Fall, is magnetic as Emma, though the script keeps her motivations frustratingly opaque. Michael Stuhlbarg and Jesse Plemons make memorable meals out of smaller roles, and Emma D'Arcy brings a quiet intensity to Lena. The only real misstep is Robert John Burke's Fitzgerald, who feels like a leftover from a different, less interesting movie.

Iñárritu and his longtime collaborator, cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto, shoot the film with a restless energy, using long takes and claustrophobic close-ups to trap the audience in Digger's headspace. The score, by Bryce Dessner, pulses with dissonant strings that ratchet up the tension even in the film's quieter moments. Where Digger stumbles is in its tonal balance. Iñárritu wants to make us laugh and then gut-punch us, often in the same scene, and the transitions don't always land. A subplot involving a stranded family in the disaster zone feels like a different, more earnest film grafted onto this one. And the ending, while bold, will divide audiences - it's the kind of ambiguous, confrontational finale that Iñárritu has been building toward his entire career, but it may leave some feeling cheated.

Still, there's no denying the ambition. In an era of franchise IP and recycled nostalgia, Digger is a reminder of what a director with a singular vision and a movie star willing to take risks can accomplish. It's flawed, but it's alive.

Pros:

• Tom Cruise's fearless, career-best performance
• Iñárritu's kinetic direction and Prieto's immersive cinematography
• Sharp, funny dialogue that cuts deep
• Excellent supporting turns from Ahmed, Goodman, and Hüller

Cons:

• Tonally uneven, especially in the second act
• Some characters feel underdeveloped
• The ending is polarizing and may frustrate viewers
• A few subplots drag the pace