Review: Tom Cruise Can't Save Iñárritu's Strained Satire 'Digger'

Tom Cruise cannot save "Digger." That is the verdict of our review desk on Alejandro G. Iñárritu's new film, a climate satire that strains where it aims to sting.

Cruise plays a Texas oil tycoon. The star "brings his usual high energy to the role," the review notes — "though mightily he does try." The effort is visible. The result, per the assessment, is a "ponderous climate comedy" that even a superstar of Cruise's wattage cannot rescue.

What kind of film is 'Digger'?

The film belongs to the climate-comedy genre, and Iñárritu — the director named in the review — sets his sights on satire. The target is the oil industry, embodied in a single figure: a Texas tycoon at the center of the story.

The casting of Cruise is the film's boldest move. An actor best known for propulsion and physical commitment, he channels that trademark intensity into a character built on extraction and excess. The review credits the performance's energy while questioning whether any performance could hold up the material around it.

Why does the satire strain?

The review's core judgment is contained in two words: "ponderous" and "strained." The comedy, in this reading, weighs itself down. The satirical apparatus — an oil tycoon, a warming planet, a director with grand ambitions — produces effort rather than effect.

The reviewer's phrasing carries the point. "Though mightily he does try" concedes the star's commitment before conceding its limits. Cruise's high energy, the quality that anchors his career, here runs into material that will not rise to meet it.

Where does this leave the film?

The verdict is clear: "Digger" does not overcome its own heaviness. The review positions Iñárritu's satire as a film whose reach exceeds its tonal grasp, with Cruise's performance as the sole engine working at full throttle.

For a director of Iñárritu's stature, the notice amounts to a significant setback: even the most bankable star in contemporary cinema, deployed at maximum energy, could not lift the picture. Audiences deciding whether to buy a ticket now know where this review lands — and how much star power it took to test that conclusion.