Tom Cruise's 'Digger' Splits Critics Sharply — SkimNews
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- "Digger" drew sharply split first reactions from film journalists, with critics describing it as everything from "baffling" and "unpleasant" to "brave" and "audacious"
- Tom Cruise stars as Digger Rockwell, a wealthy tycoon who must save the world after one of his oil rigs malfunctions and triggers a global environmental catastrophe
- Alejandro González Iñárritu directs the satirical black comedy in his follow-up to his Oscar-winning work on "Birdman" and "The Revenant"
- IndieWire's Jim Hemphill called it Cruise's "best performance since 'Magnolia'" and "one of the most visually inventive...studio movies ever made," while Anne Thompson of IndieWire called it "a brave and gorgeous art film"
- Critic Edward Douglas predicted a "HORRENDOUS CinemaScore" for the film, Awards Radar's Joey Magidson called it "a mess," and Variety's Clayton Davis said "not all the dots connect"
- Cruise's prosthetic transformation for the title role originally took six hours to apply; on the "New Heights" podcast, Cruise said he drilled the makeup team until they brought application time below one hour
- Warner Bros. releases "Digger" in theaters Oct. 1, with a supporting cast including Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Sandra Hüller, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Jesse Plemons
Why it matters: The polarized early reactions directly threaten Cruise's expected Oscar campaign for his first dramatic role in over a decade — his only non-action film in that span was 2017's 'American Made.' With one critic predicting a 'HORRENDOUS CinemaScore' and another comparing his work favorably to past nomination-winning turns, the divide among film press translates into an unusually uncertain awards and commercial path for a Cruise vehicle.
Ask SkimNews
