Looking back at cinema history, the 1970s were one of the most interesting periods, thanks to studios giving directors more control, which is why so many films from that decade are incredible. Then Heaven’s Gate came along and destroyed a studio, and the doors shut on the auteurs and their control. Now it seems the great directors have room to develop projects that don’t follow the mainstream. Films like One Battle After Another and The Bride and The Odyssey don’t follow the usual path; they try to be different, and while some succeed, others fail, it’s better to fail than to be another studio-led film that isn’t out of the ordinary. Digger falls into that category, as director Alejandro G. Iñárritu delivers one of the year’s weirdest films. It might not always work, but it’s certainly original.

Digger Rockwell is an eccentric billionaire oil baron who faces a huge ecological crisis when an enormous ice block breaks away from Greenland after one of his oil refineries explodes and heads toward mainland Europe, threatening devastation. Only the man who caused it can stop it.

Iñárritu is a director who always pushes cinema, and his previous work (Birdman, The Revenant, Amores Perros) has proven it, so entering a film like Digger is like walking into the unknown. You never know what to expect, and that is exactly true. This film challenges the viewer in many ways. Its style is unique, from the framing to the colour palette and settings, which feel theatrical, even though you are never sure why until about halfway through. It never follows the norm.

Longing to be a 21st-century version of Dr Strangelove, it has the same vibe about it, with the humour incredibly satirical, and while you are watching the madness unfold, you can sense that Inarritu is making comments about the world we are living in at the moment, where the most powerful men are not the ones you think are supposed to be in control.

It has so many smart, clever and often preposterous moments, from the Presidential office where the leader of the free world is surrounded by yes-men who have no idea what to do, to Digger’s love of his life, an ailing cat that looks more like a corpse than a creature with life in it. It’s chaotic in its delivery, with performances so over-the-top they make you think everyone was told to turn their characters up to 11. Then the big reveal happens, and I won’t spoil it here, and everything makes a little more sense.

Everyone knows that this is Tom Cruise back to acting, and not just running and jumping. As the title character, covered in prosthetics, he is marvellously deranged. Think Les Grossman from Tropic Thunder but amped up. He has so much fun, and it’s nice to see him just let go. John Goodman, always a great value, is perfectly suited as the President, while Riz Ahmed is more controlled as Digger’s science expert, yet his performance really shines. If there is one disappointment, it’s Anatomy of a Fall’s Sandra Huller, who gets very little to do and deserves much more.

What makes Digger work for me is that it never plays it safe. It’s willing to push boundaries, and while it has flopped at the box office, you are witnessing a brave attempt to do something different with cinema, and for me, that’s far more important than following mainstream routes. A definite cult in the making, I am sure it will find an audience willing to let the madness take them on an amazing journey.

4 out of 5

Director: Alejandro G. Iñárritu

Starring: Tom Cruise, John Goodman, Riz Ahmed, Sandra Huller, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jesse Plemons, Robert John Burke, Emma D’Arcy, Burn Gorman, Sophie Wilde, Danny Kirrane, Ross Hatt

Written by: Alexander Dinelaris, Nicolas Giacobone, (also story), Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Sabina Berman and (story) Jez Butterworth

Running Time: 129 mins

Cert: 15

Release date: 2nd October 2026