Tom Cruise’s Digger is using its sharply divided reviews as part of its latest marketing campaign, with a new advert putting opinions describing the film as “masterpiece” alongside criticism calling it “insufferable”.
The ad from Warner Bros telling audiences to “decide for yourself” was released on Tuesday, shortly before the film’s review embargo lifted, and leans into the unusually divided response to the film.
It flips between opposing reactions to Digger, including “brilliant” and “baffling”, as well as “magnificent” and “insufferable”, before declaring: “Same film, different truth”.
The reactions came from film influencers who saw it at early screenings and posted their responses after the social media embargo lifted.
Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, Digger stars Cruise as Digger Rockwell, a hugely wealthy and politically powerful oil tycoon whose drilling operation sets off a catastrophic environmental disaster.
When a massive piece of ice breaks away from Greenland and threatens Europe, Digger finds himself trying to convince the world that he can save it from the crisis he helped create.
Decide for yourself. DIGGER – in theaters and IMAX FRIDAY. Tickets on sale now. https://t.co/Z1IpSpFnXd pic.twitter.com/e5ID4WUxbL
Riz Ahmed plays scientist Ganesh, with John Goodman as President Compson, Sandra Hüller as Digger’s half-sister Emma Rockwell, Michael Stuhlbarg as the vice president, and Jesse Plemons as Kenny.
The Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey fell into the camp of those who weren’t too impressed by Digger, as she writes in her two-star review of the film that it “arrives, in all its American grotesquerie, with all the force of a light breeze”.
“As much as Digger has been sold on the promise that Cruise here is a revelation, there’s no real inversion to speak of, merely a return to the kind of work he did (over two decades ago!) before his blockbuster action streak. Even his latex makeover seems reminiscent of his paunchy, balding Les Grossman in Tropic Thunder (2008). He’s dependably formidable. And magnetic,” she writes.
In an early reaction to the film, The Independent’s Jacob Stolworthy said that Digger took a “big swing that grabbed my attention in a big way”.
“Digger is the kind of film that exists entirely on its own merits, and almost dares the audience to dislike it,” he said.
Variety’s Owen Gleiberman wrote that Digger “isn’t funny. It’s nervy, in your face, adventurous, and bizarro in a free-swinging, out-of-the-box way”, while Vulture’s Bilge Ebiri called it “a torturous experience”.
However, The Telegraph’s Robbie Collin gave Digger four stars, describing it as the “most bonkers film of the year”, and Amy Nicholson of The Los Angeles Times wrote that while she didn’t “entirely love this strange comedy, I’m giddy that it’s lurched into existence”.
Digger currently has a 52 per cent Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 6.1 out of 10. Among the site’s Top Critics, the score is lower still, at 33 per cent from 39 reviews. On Metacritic, Digger has a score of 44 out of 100 from 41 critics.
The film is Iñárritu’s lowest-rated feature on Rotten Tomatoes, falling below Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths, which previously held that position at 60 per cent.
Digger is set to be released in cinemas on 2 October.
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