Digger (2026)

Director: Alejandro G. Iñárritu

Cast: Tom Cruise, Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Sandra Hüller

Have I Seen It Before: No. But, tell you what: Check back with me in a couple of days, and I may have a completely different take on the whole thing.

Did I Like It: I feel like I’m lucky that I saw this almost immediately after taking in The Social Reckoning (2026). I came away from that film a little underwhelmed by seeing the seams in the docudrama, and more than a little put off by the fact that it was dramatizing a situation in which we the marginally innocent either have completely lost, or have. not seen the end.

I occasionally can’t help but compare films with similar themes, or ones I have seen in relatively close proximity, but I come to you with this statement: I’m still settling on whether or not I liked Digger, but I’m relatively sure Digger—if it were somehow made into a real-life boy—would have a few things to say about The Social Reckoning.

Is Digger brave? Maybe, but the film would probably blanche at such a description. Is Digger too pretentious for its own good? There’s certainly a way to read it that way, and the film—and the promotional material accompanying it—almost delights in that assessment. The film is primarily—and this might be something of a spoiler*—a commentary on the form of the docudrama. It can be entertaining. It can be, occasionally, illuminating. If it is dealing with a problem, and that problem isn’t ancient history, there’s a fundamental problem. The story can make a lot of noise, and it can make us feel things, but after the story is over, the problem still exists. That can apply to both the calamity brought on by climate change, and also by the fact that Tom Cruise can outrun as many of his demons as he possibly could, but he may still be estranged from parts of his life, and there are always moments where he is not “on.”

So, I’m sitting here still trying to figure out if I liked Digger, but I certainly am still thinking about it. I am prepared to say that counts for something.

*It’s a real spoiler, who am I kidding?

Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014)

Director: Alejandro G. Iñárritu

Cast: Michael Keaton, Zach Galifanakis, Edward Norton, Emma Stone

Have I Seen it Before: I mean, with the Keaton Quotient (tm) alone, you knew I was going to be there as soon as it came to the local art house theater.

Did I Like It: There’s something stealthy about the appeal of this film. A film is about the state of the current state of the American stage and celebrity. It weaves in a pointedly honest depiction of mental illness with the fiction of Raymond Carver. How would such heady material be able to not only zero in on a wide audience, but end up with the Academy Award?

Well, it certainly helps that it has the cultural oddity of Keaton starring as a role only he could, that of an aging movie star whose biggest claim to fame was being walking away from a major superhero franchise in the 1990s.

It sure worked on me. The film makes fun of the people that adore Thomson for his past glories, and, well... It me. And a bunch of those types of people (again, read: me) don’t have a sense of humor about themselves. They should. We’re ridiculous.

And if the film weren’t as successful as it were, then it might feel like a bait and switch. Equal parts audacious and clever, the mere fact that the film is able to simulate the entire affair taking place in one shot would be enough to recommend it. But if it were more traditionally shot, and didn’t feature one of my favorite film actors goofing on himself, then the film would still be worth a watch. Maybe purveyors of pop culture shouldn’t reach for artistic excellence, as some of the characters in the film suggest. I just like that I can go see something that advertises itself as a superhero film, and get a little bit extra for my ticket/blu ray purchase.

Plus, I have a working theory that owing to the cathartic experience of this film, Keaton warmed up to the idea of returning to superhero films, thus the delight of Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) and the coming wonder that is his return as the Caped Crusader, which if you’ve been reading this space over the last several years, that has been my raison d’ete du cinema.