Tom Cruise’s Digger has flopped spectacularly – but I think it is a misunderstood masterpiece

Alejandro G Iñárritu’s film may be about to become one of the biggest bombs Hollywood has ever seen – but it is destined to be re-evaluated with time This article contains spoilers for Digger I feel for film critics, I really do. Tom Cruise’s latest film Digger put them in an imp

Alejandro G Iñárritu’s film may be about to become one of the biggest bombs Hollywood has ever seen – but it is destined to be re-evaluated with time This article contains spoilers for Digger I feel for film critics, I really do. Tom Cruise’s latest film Digger put them in an impossible position: you can’t really talk about it without spoiling what makes it, in my eyes, a masterpiece. Or completely terrible – as many, many critics have argued over the last week, without being fully free to say why.

That is not their fault: media screenings around the world opened with a plea from Warner Bros to not spoil the film’s central reveal . This seems like it may have been a misstep, because curiosity and Cruise alone were clearly not enough to get bums on seats. Digger is now projected to lose around $150m , after taking a paltry $20m globally in its opening weekend.

Warner Bros is trying to make the best of a bad situation, first crowing about the stinker reviews – “insufferable” and “smug” have been repeated a lot – then pivoting to a new sell: the Yanks don’t get it, so it must be good . Continue reading...