The most divisive movie of the year is available to watch right now

We think it's very good, for the record.

Digger, the new and divisive satirical black comedy from Oscar-winning director Alejandro G. Iñárritu (Birdman, The Revenant) and star Tom Cruise, has finally landed in cinemas.

In heavy prosthetics, the Hollywood A-lister plays Digger Rockwell, a billionaire oil tycoon whose company’s drilling in Greenland unleashes a potentially world-ending environmental disaster. In response, Digger meets up with the US President (John Goodman) and a climate scientist (Riz Ahmed) to try to stop the damage or at least control the narrative around the catastrophe.

Digger

Movie Title	Digger
Where to Watch	In cinemas
Cast	Tom Cruise, Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Sandra Hüller, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jesse Plemons
Length	129 minutes

Digger has split audiences right down the middle, as evidenced by its current Rotten Tomatoes score of 54%. In a way, this was to be expected.

The movie is not what audiences expect from its action-man star; it’s a one-of-a-kind film that blends outrageous satire with genuine human drama.

It’s also not quite the movie its trailers are selling. On this point, critics were specifically asked not to reveal spoilers. We will confirm, however, that the film is NOT a musical, as many theorised.

Watch the trailer for Digger right here:

Instead, we'd advise going into Digger with an open mind. What begins as a broad but effective satire about contemporary times evolves into a thought-provoking, haunting exploration of satire itself: What makes for successful satire? Why have artists forever been drawn to the genre? Can satire actually lead to real change?

As is typical of Iñárritu's work, Digger looks incredible. The endlessly inventive set design is worth the price of admission alone.

Also, Cruise is very, very good here. The actor gives a ten-minute unbroken, highly choreographed monologue midway through that is utterly electrifying. We expect to see some awards love for him.

If you can get on its wavelength, Digger is often laugh-out-loud funny as it pokes fun at the wealthy elite who gamble with the rest of our lives (Burn Gorman, Michael Stuhlbarg and Robert John Burke are particularly hilarious as members of the president's inner circle). At the same time, the movie finds genuinely inventive ways to address how these actions by the powerful have a serious human cost, not just on the world's population now, but on those who will follow.

Be sure to stay for the end credits, because they've stayed with us.