Tom Cruise’s worst-reviewed film since The Mummy is also earning him some of the best notices of his career.
The Digger reviews have landed, and critics cannot agree on whether Alejandro G. Inarritu made a masterpiece or a disaster. As of Wednesday, the Warner Bros. release sits in the low 50s on Rotten Tomatoes with a 44 on Metacritic, making it Tom Cruise‘s worst-reviewed film since The Mummy in 2017.
The number hides how far apart the verdicts are. One critic gave it five stars. Another gave it zero. The critics in the middle mostly separated the star from the film.
Cruise, nearly unrecognizable under prosthetics, plays Digger Rockwell, an oil tycoon whose drilling in Greenland knocks loose an ice shelf and sets off a global catastrophe. He spends the rest of the film trying to convince the world he can save it. Riz Ahmed, Sandra Huller, John Goodman, Michael Stuhlbarg and Jesse Plemons co-star.
Warner Bros. is leaning into the split. A new spot for the film pairs opposing Digger reviews side by side: “unpleasant” against “masterpiece,” “baffling” against “brilliant,” “insufferable” against “magnificent.”
The Best Digger Reviews
The London Evening Standard gave the film full marks, calling it Cruise’s best performance since 1999’s Magnolia and “audacious, risky, terrific fun.”
Deadline compared it to the adventurous studio films of the 1970s and singled out “a stunning 10-minute monologue” in which Digger admits guilt while spreading the blame to everyone watching. He called Inarritu “one of the most original and fascinating filmmakers working today.”
The BBC’s review was the most candid of the raves. “Most people won’t go to see it, and some people who do will walk out halfway through,” it warned, before adding: “Personally, I loved it.”
USA Today was warmer on Cruise than on the film’s awards prospects, praising a star “really going for it in a fashion he hasn’t in quite a while” while warning that the divisive response could keep him out of the Oscar race.
The Worst Digger Reviews
The pans are some of the harshest of Cruise’s career. The Boston Globe gave it zero stars and called it “the worst movie of Tom Cruise’s career.” The New York Post called it his “first real stinker in nearly 10 years” and said Cruise himself is “just not very good.”
The comparisons to Don’t Look Up came fast. The Hollywood Reporter said Digger makes Adam McKay’s satire “seem almost innocuous,” and the Austin Chronicle called it “both insufferable and sanctimonious.”
IndieWire described it as “a hat on a hat on a hat on a hat,” a Dr. Strangelove riff so detached that its most believable character is an animatronic cat. Slant called the film “a shameless Tom Cruise ego stroke,” and Canada’s Globe and Mail was blunter still, calling it “loud, ugly and forever oblivious to its own shortcomings.”
The Mixed Digger Reviews
A handful of critics split the difference, usually by separating Cruise from the movie around him. Empire found the film “more concerned with itself than with the audience” but said Cruise “emerges with a win,” and praised Emmanuel Lubezki’s cinematography and Dennis Gassner’s production design.
TheWrap disliked the film but called Cruise’s performance “a seductive, intriguing enigma.” The Los Angeles Times admitted it did not entirely love the film, then added, “I’m giddy that it’s lurched into existence.”
That may be the most accurate review of all. Whether Digger ends up remembered as a folly or a cult object will start to become clear this weekend, when it opens in theaters Friday, October 2.
Where the Market Stands
The split among critics is showing up in the Rotten Tomatoes market, too. Traders have Digger finishing almost exactly on the 50 percent line: holding above the high 40s is the favored outcome, landing above 50 is close to a coin flip, and anything higher is an underdog. The market settles Monday, October 5, after opening weekend, which means the wave of reviews that arrives alongside Friday’s release will decide it.
See where the full Digger Rotten Tomatoes market stands right now, updated live, on Kalshi. New to the exchange? Sign up with code THECINEMAGROUP and trade $20 to unlock $20 free.
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