It was a week ago that I saw Digger at Landmark Cinema in Windsor, Ontario.

Does it matter where I saw it? Not really. But I went in the afternoon and I went on the cheap day. Somehow I woke up one day and cheap theatre day went from $4.50 to $9.00 but here we are. For the low price of $9 I was able to get an entire theatre by myself to see the new Tom Cruise movie in the final days of Warner Bros. Discovery.

I have been excited about Digger since the first teaser “announcement” trailer.

Why? I don’t really know. Seeing Tom Cruise finally look old honestly might have been it. One of my favourite performances by Cruise was Vincent in Collateral. It’s the first time Tom Cruise was trying to look his age in a very long time. It’s not really his fault he has good genes and always looks younger. You can decide if it’s Hollywood plastic surgery I don’t really care. People love to think everyone is fake because they would be fake if they had the opportunity. I don’t know if Cruise got anything and I really don’t care. The point is he was 42 playing a guy who looked 42. He no longer looked eternally 30 something.

The Digger teaser had Tom Cruise looking like a man in his mid 60s or older. His body not some perfect athlete. This wasn’t Mission: Impossible anymore. It wasn’t even American Made. It’s the first non action movie since Rock of Ages. The first drama since Lions for Lambs. That said, Digger is less a drama and more a satire. A black comedy. The closest to black comedy Cruise has ever done would be the introduction of Frank T.J. Mackey in Magnolia. He’s never done a black comedy really. Check that off the list.

(Before anyone says anything yes he played a weird old agent in Les Grossman but that wasn’t him trying to seriously portray someone older. That was for the yucks.)

So here we go. I know nothing about the movie. The title announcement told me nothing. The official trailer told me nothing. It did introduce me to things. John Goodman was going to be in this! There’s an old cat! The lighting is strange! Digger is an oil guy? They bomb an iceberg? There’s a big fight in a pale parliament building?

Then there’s the choice of Burning Down the House by Talking Heads. That had me interested. That couldn’t just be picking out an 80s song.

“Watch out you might get what you’re after”

So I see the movie alone in the theatre. Shut my phone off like a good boy even though I’m the only one in the whole room. I watch the movie.

As the final “Level Four” blared out of the speakers? I felt this was not just the best movie of 2026 but the best film of the 2020s.

Non Spoiler Review

I’ll be spoiling a lot later so let me do a spoiler free review.

I didn’t come into this a big fan of Alejandro G. Iñárritu. I liked Biutiful. I liked Birdman. It’s not my favourite Birdman (that would be Harvey Birdman) but it was good. Good performances. Good gimmick. Babel stinks. The Revenant is a very beautiful to look at but ultimately boring movie. So I’m 50/50 with him.

The choices he makes in Digger I absolutely love. There’s a purpose to the lighting. It isn’t “just another digital film with no colour correction” everything is deliberate. If something you see makes you feel queasy or artificial that’s because the director, cinematographer, and crew literally wanted to invoke that. Nothing is laziness. Everything is in place for a reason. Every angle, every design choice, right down to clothing.

The acting is phenomenal. Tom Cruise is giving his best performance. There might be movies you like him in better but I think he does more in this than anything else. People say he’s trying to chase the Academy Award. This doesn’t feel like an Oscar chase performance. This isn’t Cruise crying in a holocaust movie in December. This is Cruise going all in on this performance, leaving a part of him in it, putting a part of him inside it, and creating a character that will live years after.

John Goodman, one of the most underrated actors of the past 40 years, shines in this as well. Riz Ahmed is fantastic. Sandra Hüller has the difficult task of being a human while clearly being asked to be over the top in ways that would usually be one dimensional or feel like a bad B-Movie but there’s a reason she is and she’s great at it. Michael Stuhlbarg doing great supporting work as he always does. And Jesse Plemons? There’s a reason many think he’s the next Philip Seymour Hoffman and it’s not just physical similarity of both being fair haired squinty eye guys. Everything he does in this movie is incredibly important.

The pacing is great. I was rarely bored. There’s several moments that change what you’re watching and what things mean and they keep you going. You’re constantly thinking about what everything means, what this is saying, and what’s going to happen next. By the end you think, okay, now what? And then you get what. And you get what everyone is seeing. And then the credits roll. And then you can’t stop thinking about Digger for a week.

No movie has had me thinking about it this long in almost a decade. The last time I thought about a movie like this was Blade Runner 2049 and that’s arguably my favourite film. Much like Blade Runner 2049, Digger makes choices and asks questions you can ask about yourself and the world. It isn’t a movie that wraps everything up in a bow. The movie doesn’t tell you how to think. Which is why people are so divided on it even when they agree.

That’s Digger.

Hit Job or Hit Dog Holler

I can’t promise it will be spoiler free after this sentence so this is your warning.

Prior to the film releasing in theatres the original reviews were… bad.

A lot of mainstream critics, some I even listen to and respect, were absolutely blasting it as a movie without focus, doesn’t know what it’s saying, and hates its audience.

I was surprised. I avoided hearing too much because I still wanted the movie to be a surprise for me. I was seeing people disagree with the early reviews, especially this from Fauxlosopher.

Digger. What a film. Didn’t take long to understand why american critics panned the shit out of this one. The call is coming from inside the house for the people who make villains to erase their own culpability to the great crimes of our time. This is megalopolis, inverted.

— Fauxlosopher (@fauxfilosopher) October 2, 2026

https://t.co/bJmntA8PMZ

— Aaron is Unsustainable (@AaronWrotkowski) October 3, 2026

Maybe this got me more excited for the movie and had me in no way being able to dislike it, but recall my review of episode eight of Lanterns. That was a show I absolutely loved the seven episodes leading up to it. The eighth? I first said I liked it and then the more I thought about it the more my liking of it fell apart.

Why did I see it when so many others did not?

Was it a Hit Job? A smear campaign?

I don’t know. I felt smear campaign because the last big WBD film from last year, Sinners, that also had a smear campaign by the Hollywood Reporter, Deadline and Variety among other outlets that all just so happen to be owned by Jay Penske in some way. And here we got the same happening with Digger. But Digger goes beyond it. Like I said, I generally like The Ringer in discussing movies and Amanda Dobbins called it annoying and irritating. I shouldn’t put this all on Amanda. Sean Fennessey kind of liked it and Van Lathan said he loved it. Mark Kermode ripped it apart, and I doubt he’s on anyone’s dime except his. He called it not brilliant and a jaw dropping failure. I don’t think he’s on the Penske dime.

Honestly the review that bothered me the most was Shea Serrano who couldn’t understand that the movie looks a certain way on purpose to the point where he missed the entire point of the fucking film. Spoiler: they look white bloated and dead because everyone fucking drowned due to the actions of Digger and this is a play about that happening. That’s why they are pale.

“the desaturation thing made me feel like everything I was looking at was already dead”

How do I politely say that’s the point I don’t even know how anymore

— Aaron is Unsustainable (@AaronWrotkowski) October 7, 2026

So if it’s not a hit job (or at least not with everyone), is it hit dog hollar? By that, I mean are these critics disliking it because it says something about political satire, or their vision of the world, or did they take it as a cynical film and so they hate the fact we’re getting a movie saying that the bad guys are going to win and all we can do is laugh at them after they die and destroy the world?

That depends on each critic individually. I do think that could be possible, and that those critics unfortunately don’t get what the movie is about. At least how I interpret it. What’s great is that many people are interpreting it in many different ways and seeing different philosophies and themes based on those viewings.

So how can I say they are seeing it wrong if there’s multiple ways to see it? Because I think the movie isn’t being defeatist at all. I don’t think the message of it is ever about giving up and letting the bad guys win. We’re going to be wandering the ruins of our streets in corporate branded breathing masks if we don’t do more than just watch political satire. I don’t think that’s the intended reading (bad guys win you can do nothing) unless you watched the whole movie bitter about the lack of catharsis.

That’s the one thing this movie refuses to give you, even when it portrays it on screen. There is no catharsis. And if this is a case of hit dogs holler, it’s because those critics go into movies about the effects of environmental catastrophes and abuse of the rich and abuse of the government and all that expecting a catharsis. Expecting the little guys to get something on them. Digger doesn’t give you catharsis.

It took a few years for people to understand Zodiac due to its refusal of catharsis. I’m sure people will turn eventually in favour of Digger.

Network

I’ve seen people say this is Dr. Strangelove. I have even seen people say this is Brazil. For me this is 50 years since Network and feels like Network more than any movie I’ve seen.

Network was a satirical black comedy. It wasn’t a play but it was written by a playwriter in Paddy Chayefsky. It was directed by Sidney Lumet who worked in theatre before moving to film. It’s these elements coming together which is why a lot of Network feels like a play. The arguments in the office. The news set. The giant table of green lamps when Howard Beale is confronted by the head of the network.

Network focused on the power of media, the relationship of corporations versus government, the way television uses people for entertainment, and a glimpse into the future. It did it so satirically you often wondered if what you were seeing was real or not. If it was too outrageous. If it was too inhumane. At least then. When I saw it, I realized Paddy had a crystal ball.

Digger invokes much of that same satirical edge but it’s instead focused on our relationship to media that satirizes real life events and the powers that be controlling those events. How staging a play about real people who did real harm can give audiences a catharsis that doesn’t ultimately solve anything. Nobody clapping and cheering for Digger drowning himself gets their loved ones back. They don’t get their air breathable again. They don’t get their world put back together. But for one moment in the theatre they get to feel like justice was served. Even when they watch as Digger was never punished. He went insane and chose to drown himself. Nobody ever stopped him. He just ran out of sanity.

I don’t know if Digger becomes a crystal ball like Network predicting how we end up living through a cataclysm brought by the untethered rich and the untethered governments. What I do know is that it was fucking time for someone to come out and say that this shit might feel good but it doesn’t help.

That’s the real point of it. It’s sugar to the politically inclined. It might feel good but it’s still sugar. It’s sweet. It tastes good. Too much of it is a bad thing. More importantly it gives you a buzz and brings you back to earth. For some they might say no fucking duh watching political satire doesn’t save the world, but the way a lot of people react to movies and documentaries putting the rich and famous in their place? Especially YouTube videos that go viral? You’re no fucking duh about it. You’re duh. You think it helps.

When Digger gets Ganesh to go up and say everything that his company has been doing and tell the truth, and tells him before it that they can know the truth but what matters is the story? There’s no slight of hand there. That’s how the world works. It doesn’t matter how many facts you have. You can have a big shiny book of facts but they don’t mean shit if you don’t control the narrative. You need to be able to take those facts and assemble them into a story that leads to a removal of power. If you do not accomplish that? Facts mean nothing. That’s what Digger was proving to the parliament as the fight broke out. He was throwing everything he did back into the faces of the consumer. His story was that he only provides what they request. Is it true? Not really. Digger was abusing his power. But nobody told that story. They just provided facts.

It’s something that repeats over and over in discourse online. People pointing out all the ways Donald Trump lies, how his administration lies, and how his supporters lie. The lying isn’t removing them from power. Revealing the truth isn’t taking a vote away.

Whereas Network is about the ways television networks will manipulate and kill for ratings, Digger is about how much we’re manipulated from the jump. That’s why Jesse Plemons as Kenny is so important. He isn’t just Kenny. He’s Kenny Rockwell. He’s the little ginger boy in the play grown up. He says he bought the play 20 years prior. How much has he changed based on his own viewpoint of reality? How much did he change to hide the truth? How much has been lost in the original play based on Kenny’s control of it?

Kenny uses the phone number of Curtis Markson’s daughter to help locate her so Curtis can end the play with the satisfaction of knowing his daughter is okay. He isn’t just bankrolling the story of the downfall of his uncle. He’s giving people that sweet moment of catharsis (denied to us, given to the audience watching Fossil Fools) to forget what his company is doing, another generation of billionaire putting his fingerprints on every day life. The masks everyone is wearing leaving the theatre, with LUNGZ across it? Manufactured by the company Kenny Rockwell owns.

Much like Howard Beale was convinced by Arthur Jensen that he was God and God was telling him to change his message, so to does Kenny Rockwell play God with the audience and the people making the play. The destruction from his family of the planet was by his uncles hands, and it’s by his that people can breathe in the streets to walk to a theatre to go see a play where that uncle dies. Digger still profits.

Box Office Bomb

I’m already getting close to 3,000 words but I want to talk just shortly about how the movie is so far a box office failure.

It’s pretty hard today to give people a trailer that tells you nothing and expect them to see it unless the word of mouth is incredible. You gotta be providing something like Avatar or The Matrix to pull that off. I never once thought Digger was going to be a box office smash, and when I heard the cost I was shocked.

But I also don’t care. My favourite films include Blade Runner, Fight Club, Almost Famous, Scott Pilgrim vs The World, Big Trouble in Little China, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and Wet Hot American Summer. Guess what? None of those movies were box office smashes. None of them were financially successful in theatre. Some of them weren’t even successful on home video.

Do I only love movies that bomb? Well no. Ghostbusters was my first favourite film. The point is that I don’t base my taste on what everyone else likes. I base it on what I like. I loved this movie. I can’t wait to watch it again, even if the sound won’t be the same. Even if seeing the tree fall down and realize you’re looking at miniatures doesn’t have the same impact again.

This is a great movie. It will likely end up a Rewatchable and I’ll have to figure out where it falls on the list.

There’s been such a weird obsession over the movie’s box office success, and I’ve found that to be the case with Sinners and One Battle After Another as well. I do not give a single shit if these movies are successful. It’d be nice for the people involved but it doesn’t matter to me. What did Zack Snyder say again?

I’m personally convinced the obsession over movie cost is all a way to start forcing generative AI to claim that special effects and such can only be done in Gen AI in order to keep cost of films down which fuck you if you believe that and fuck you harder if you want that. But hey I’m chewing tinfoil and thinking everything is a conspiracy to pump up AI. AI is a cancer we need to stop allowing destroy everything we love.

Digger said it best: “You want energy so that you can ask AI to solve the very same disasters that it’s fueling.”

Dig It

I love Digger.

I love the performances.

I love the way it makes me ask questions about myself.

I love the way it looks.

I love the way it moves.

I can’t wait to watch it for all the small details that others have caught and see if they were correct. Like someone saying the tuna wasn’t actually tuna because tuna has been over fished so now they just tell Digger it’s tuna so he’ll feel like he’s eating something special and endangered.

I love that so many people, positive and negative, come out of the film thinking something different about it.

I love the over the top moments that at first seem like over exaggerated acting only to realize later it serves a purpose. And then peeling that purpose back. Was Emma actually shouting all the time? Or is the actor playing Emma been told by Kenny to play it like that because that was his memory of her? Or is it him trying to make Emma and those who support environmentally safe solutions look like crazy lunatics?

I loved every time the actor John Goodman portrays pulled out a vape pen the second the rehearsal got stopped.

I loved the revelation that there is no big red button to launch a nuclear missile and instead the bowling ball bag is just to contain three books he has to read, and having to read books is the only reason the play can be performed instead of everyone dying in a nuclear holocaust.

I love Digger’s Cosby sweater.

I love the pile up of Tesla cars and robots.

The robots!

I love these robots that are clearly being used as cheap police that can be easily discarded, which are easily discarded in a pile. I’ve already seen people argue we should give rights to AI and robots so humans stop abusing them. It just feels like those robots were likely protected at one point as untouchable police figures until people finally revolted. That’s why there’s the giant pile of them and why the ones on the street are mostly pushed around.

I love how so many people thought this movie was about people being helpless against stopping the evil of the world from destroying it, only for the last shot of the movie to be people on the street fighting the military presence in the city. People who can’t afford the masks to breathe, knowing their life is probably finite due to the poor air.

I love how funny it can be. Digger getting hit with the shoe. Ass cancer. Dying Maggie getting washed. All the times Lina has orders from Digger and the look on her face is complete emptiness. The Vice President failing to take the President’s position. Kenny telling Curtis and Hannah they are both right. Kenny jump scaring Curtis. Ganesh drunk.

Digger baby.

It’s funny. It’s layered. It’s depressing. It’s beautiful. I can’t stop thinking about it. It’s the best movie of 2026. It’s the best movie of the decade. Maybe I’m too early to say that. I thought One Battle After Another would be my favourite film of 2025 and Sinners beat it on December 31. We got Dune: Part Three and Artificial coming out. Maybe I should wait for those to come out before I crown Digger.

“Fuck this iceberg! Let’s dance!”

Nah it’s Digger. Welcome to the decade of Digger. Grab a shovel.