There’s something to be said for the ambition of Digger. Despite boasting an impressive $125 million budget, the A-list star power of Tom Cruise and two-time Academy Award-winning director Alejandro G. Iñárritu (of Birdman and The Revenant fame), Digger is far from a traditional Hollywood blockbuster, and is sure to be divisive amongst audiences. If you weren’t convinced by Digger from the trailers, rest assured: the film is even more strange and unwieldy than the marketing has made out, but to delve into why would spoil the surprise. This inevitably makes Digger a challenge to review, although this write-up will remain spoiler-free.

Set in a distinctly artificial but all-too-believable world in which a self-centred billionaire is responsible for an environmental disaster that the pompous, tantrum-throwing President of the United States wants to either blow up or blame someone else for, there is something distinctly 2020s about Digger. As the eponymous oil tycoon, Tom Cruise has gone full Les Grossman (from Tropic Thunder) in a complete physical and vocal transformation that seems completely ridiculous until the character reveals just how unnervingly charismatic he is. Digger’s monologue mid-way through the film sees him weaponise his own failure and alter the narrative, performing not only to the crowd in the room with him but unspecified millions watching on their phones as well. Cruise is a tour de force, shifting his well-known physicality into more of a character actor, creating a complete physical and vocal performance in the character of Digger Rockwell. Whether this earns him an Oscar nod, we’ll have to see, but he’s great here. Even if the satirical elements seem a bit too over-the-top at points, they never manage to lose their bite.

If this all sounds a little one-note for a film with a 129-minute running time, rest assured that Digger has other, more complex themes on its mind which occasionally threaten to undercut the scathing satire of its central premise. Iñárritu is clearly interested in how we engage with a story like Digger’s in a post-Covid world, and how complicit we are in what seems almost like a post-apocalyptic landscape. Riz Ahmed’s Dr Ganesh is a voice of reason throughout the film (in a standout performance), and even he struggles to make Digger and John Goodman’s President understand the full ramifications of their actions. Emmanuel Lubezki’s de-saturated, washed-out VistaVision cinematography highlights this apocalyptic feel whilst indulging in the artifice of Iñárritu’s world, complete with an uncanny terminally-ill cat puppet (cat lovers, this may not be for you). The camera often remains low, looking up at the richest and most powerful men of the world as they discuss our potential demise, giving Goodman the opportunity to chew the scenery while Cruise varies between boisterous indignation and a more subtle, menacing glint in the eye.

Some of Digger’s (more spoiler-y) moments and ideas don’t always work, with a central character arc flowing in and out between its bigger moments in a way that can be distracting and never quite manages to coalesce with the rest of the narrative. The marketing may dub it as ‘a comedy of catastrophic proportions’, but the challenge for Digger to overcome is whether audiences can get on board not only its story but its approach, too.

It is laugh-out-loud funny at points, bolstered by some beautifully-timed physical and verbal comedy (despite not being one of the leads, Burn Gorman managed to get 2 of the biggest laughs from me), yet there are moments when it’s a struggle to get on the film’s wavelength as it varies off into different directions that seem almost at odds with one another. A key scene with Jesse Plemons seems to bring the story together in a way that should satisfy some audiences, even if it never quite packs the punch it could have done. Moreover, the final shot is as a distinct reminder of not only how bad things have been in the world in the last few years but how bad they could still get in a moment that’s sure to hit home the key themes of Digger…if the film’s offbeat tone and peculiar blend of tragedy and comedy hasn’t made you numb to this final sting in the tail.

All in all, Digger is an wildly ambitious, frequently amusing and often bewildering film that’s sure to divide opinion from all audiences. Regardless of whether you enjoy Digger or not, it’s difficult not to be impressed that a major studio was willing to spend blockbuster money on a film this risky. Whether it all comes together in a satisfying whole is up for debate (and potentially multiple viewings); however it’s such a wild ride and bolstered by a committed ensemble cast (this review hasn’t even mentioned the likes of Sandra Hüller, Michael Stuhlbarg, Emma D’Arcy and Sophie Wilde who all appear in supporting roles) who clearly know what kind of film they’re in…even if the audience might not. Digger may be a bit of a mixed bag, but it’s well worth digging in to see what the fuss is about.

Digger is in UK cinemas from 2 October