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?