Digger (2026) Review: You Musn’t Be Afraid To Dig A Little Deeper, Darling

Digger is an eccentric oil tycoon whose love of the bottom line blinds him to the global ramifications of his excavation. From the trailers, it was clear that all was not what it seemed with Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s new film. There were speculations that Digger was a musical in disguise, and with a filmography that includes the Academy Award-winning Birdman (2014), when you walk into an Iñárritu film, you already expect the unexpected.

There is a farce and a truth to both the film and its titular character. There is a wonderfully constructed overzealousness to Digger, expertly handled by Tom Cruise, who plays an actor playing the role of Digger. For the past few years, Cruise has been relegated to action man, thanks to his long stint in the Mission: Impossible franchise and the multitude of death-defying stunts he insists on doing himself. As Digger, Cruise returns to the kind of actor we saw in A Few Good Men (1992), and it’s gratifying to see that level of skill wasn’t buried too deep.

Watching Cruise flip in and out of character while remaining in character adds another layer to the film. The blurred lines between actor and character mirror the audience’s own experience, constantly challenging our perception of what we’re watching.

There are multiple layers to this film, reminiscent of The Ember Island Players (Avatar: The Last Airbender, season 3, episode 17), in its recap and parody of events as well as the exaggerated cast of characters inhabited by the likes of Riz Ahmed, John Goodman and Sandra Hüller. But the blurred lines between truth and perception extend beyond the film itself. Power-playing world leaders and businessmen manipulate the masses for political gain, environmental shifts edge towards catastrophe, and the resilience of human beings who are being tested like never before. Amid all this, there is also the need for art to distract and soothe the soul.

Sounds familiar? This filmic observation could, word for word, be read as societal commentary.

A playful infusion of technology and theatricality adds to the film’s trippy, otherworldly nature. Though the movie takes place within a self-contained set, there is a whole reality on the fringes that we’re not privy to. It’s akin to the dystopian threads found in Kazuo Ishiguro’s works, such as Never Let Me Go and Klara and the Sun. We live with the unsettling feeling that something isn’t quite right in this world, yet the position of the camera deliberately forces our gaze elsewhere. It’s an effective way of creating doubt and intrigue, keeping us at a distance from the very things we want to understand.

Digger will not be a film for everybody. For those willing to sit through quite a lot of setup, however, it is thought-provoking, if not entirely satisfying. Go for the set design and the applaud-worthy collaboration between Iñárritu and Cruise; stay for the uncomfortable realisation that beneath all the absurdity, Digger’s world isn’t quite as far removed from our own as we’d like to think.

Rating: 3/5

What did you think of Digger?