Alejandro G. Iñárritu's 'Digger' delivers operatic climate satire starring Tom Cruise

Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s latest effort, “Digger,” attempts a black-comedy take on climate catastrophe, positioning Tom Cruise as oil baron Digger Rockwell who dismisses melting glaciers in Greenland with swagger and baseball metaphors. Shot by Emmanuel Lubezki in VistaVision, the film opens in a museum-like mansion before the ice shelf “Judy” breaks off and heads toward Europe, prompting a farcical meeting with President Compson (John Goodman) and a UN-style council.

While the satire struggles to elicit laughs, the movie’s stark visual style and meta play-within-a-play structure give weight to its critique of fossil-fuel dependence. Riz Ahmed appears as a concerned scientist, and the narrative swings between absurdist dialogue and genuine environmental dread. Rated R for pervasive language, the 128-minute Warner Bros. release aims to shake audiences much like “An Inconvenient Truth,” though its operatic excess may limit broad appeal.