Digger (Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2026)

[wattsup32]

Apparently a major, context-altering spoiler for this film is now making the rounds online. Please do not bring this to our forum, signed Mod Who Will Ban You

I have it on good authority that the spoiler is that the lead isn't actually Tom Cruise in prosthetics. It's Bob Odenkirk with no prosthetics.

[swo17]

AGI treading into Lanthimos territory without a map

This would be a great pull quote if it weren't a dig

[pzadvance]

digging on digger is a fool's errand

[Zot!]

Best thing that could come of it is an Oscar nomination for Cruise that makes him hungry to do dramatic work again (ideally sans goofy prosthetics)

Best thing for me would be an Oscar for John Goodman

This looks like AGI treading into Lanthimos territory without a map. Hated Birdman and this looks similar.

Looks more like Roy Andersson but I can see a bit of Lanthimos too

I can sort of see what you're saying in the set design, but Roy Andersson would never make anything even approximating this much hyperbolic cutting and shouting.

[bearcuborg]

I saw the Roy Andersson shot too! God I hope we get one more from him…

That said, just like Nolan-I just can’t get into Alejandro’s work. So I will most likely skip this and whatever Nolan’s IMAX feature is…

[Never Cursed]

While the reviews/reactions/whatever are still embargoed, this screened for NYC critics this weekend to what it sounds like was a brutal response (note: I enjoy Iñárritu's films, not looking forward to this tanking, just putting this out there)

[hearthesilence]

I've never liked his films that much - even though there's at least a couple that I didn't think were bad - but I don't think his success has been anything but beneficial to mainstream studio filmmaking. The end result has meant riskier and less conventional films being bankrolled by studios (with pretty substantial budgets too) and marquee stars signing on to auteur films rather than another franchise. I can't say I follow Tom Cruise's films anymore, but I thought his days of starring in auteur films as unconventional as Magnolia and Eyes Wide Shut were long gone - I can't say I expected this one to be within shouting distance of either of those two, but it was nice to see him lending his clout to something other than another meathead fantasy. Anyway, I guess we'll see how it goes, but if it bombs, I don't think that's good for anybody.

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

This is getting a Vistavision release in NYC, LA, Boston, and London. I purchased tickets for the Los Angeles screening. One Battle After Another had some technical hiccups and I heard some stories about major failures and by the end of the first weekend a few frames were missing from the opening of the film in LA.

[therewillbeblus]

We're going to get some reactions soon. The social media embargo is lifted today at 5:15 EST, and the full review embargo is lifted next week, 9/29 at 12pm EST.

[mfunk9786]

Have debated posting about this one on the forum, because I know I haven't traditionally been a big booster of Iñárritu's work and it'll likely ring hollow at best to be throwing around hyperbole when hyperbole is what you might expect from me. However, this is one of the worst studio films I've ever seen in proportion with its ambition, budget, and star power, and I'm really beyond baffled by it. Without getting into plot spoilers (don't even want to give you something to click on, too early yet), there are multiple layers to the film, one of which comprises about 90% of its runtime. This layer is crude, scatalogical, unpleasant, and worst of all unfunny [by the end you'll understand better why it is this way, which makes it no more palatable] - in a theater where there were no seats left for walk-ins, I saw at least two dozen people walk out at various stages, and heard very few laughs. Everyone seemed completely puzzled, and this was an audience that was maybe half college students who were in great spirits and chattering about Tom Cruise in the lead-up to the film (overheard one couple discussing "This is why he makes the big movies, so he can do interesting work like this!"). Nobody (present company included) that I saw seemed unwilling to meet the film where it lives, but as the plot revealed itself, it became increasingly apparent that we were dealing with an all-timer fiasco here and the feeling in the air was leaden.

The audience vibe is besides the point though: The film does not work as satire (because we're meant to understand the majority of the film as deliberately shaky and poorly executed satire). It does not work as a straightforward comedy. And despite a host of excellent supporting actors doing typically good work (Stuhlbarg, Goodman, Plemons), this amounts to very little becuase the material itself is so confoundingly unpleasant to sit through. Yes, it is great to see John Goodman through a wacky wide-angle lens. No, it is not pleasant to hear him rant and rave about his "asshole cancer." Yes, it is wonderful to see a monologue by Jesse Plemons - but this isn't Ned Beatty reading Paddy Chayefsky by a football field sized margin. The entire enterprise feels a bit like Asteroid City written by a precocious middle school boy who is trying to shock his Social Studies class.

I largely agreed with the political viewpoint of this film but still found it just execrable, tone deaf, and the nadir of Iñárritu's eclectic-but-polarizing career. Despite being the choir, I felt as though instead of being preached to, I was being shat on.

If I had to forecast today, it'll be up there with some of the most ill-conceived big studio bombs in history, and despite costing 1.5x-2x more than The Adventures of Pluto Nash, it's no better than that film.

[The Narrator Returns]

What I'm picking up about the big secret gambit is making me both increasingly scared and sickly excited. I don't hate him (again, I'm a proud "Bardo had its moments" partisan and I could go against the unanimously brutal tide here) but I don't think there's a director I'd be more concerned about doing whatever this sounds like it's doing than Iñárritu. Looking forward, if your comparison is correct, to insistences here that this is so much better than that piece of shit Asteroid City.

[mfunk9786]

FWIW, though I don't think it matters re: reacting to this film at all - I love Asteroid City. Digger bears some loose similarity to that film structurally but not spiritually. Not sure what the hell is going on in Iñárritu's spirit or his three co-writers' spirits, but maybe I don't want to know.

Spoiler

The moral of this picture being, in part, 'wealthy patrons/financiers of films and plays are the real heroes of our culture' certainly explains how it got made, but it doesn't explain why I'm supposed to be enraptured by it.

[The Narrator Returns]

Oh no, I didn't think you were dissing, admittedly I'm reacting to the one person here I know who checks the boxes of fervently pro-Iñárritu and anti-Asteroid. I don't know if you saw Bardo but I think that's a clear window into the man's spirit: insanely long-winded, trying to be both goofy and self-serious, stylizing not always to good or less-than-horrifying effect. I just hope Lil' Bardo doesn't return in this, I'd only now stopped having nightmares about him.

[mfunk9786]

The cat puppet that smells like "acidic" excrement will be an excellent stand-in for Lil' Bardo in your nightmares.

[Never Cursed]

Well, you've convinced me. I had enough on my plate with NYFF that I didn't previously intend to rush out and see this, but I just bought a ticket to the earliest IMAX showing I could manage. If this is received by the general moviegoing audience as a Megalopolis-esque debacle and dozens of people quit the theater before it's over, I wanna be there. I thank you on behalf of Warner Bros. and Alejandro González Iñárritu.

[DimitriL]

This is getting a Vistavision release in NYC, LA, Boston, and London. I purchased tickets for the Los Angeles screening. One Battle After Another had some technical hiccups and I heard some stories about major failures and by the end of the first weekend a few frames were missing from the opening of the film in LA.

I think Coolidge Corner in Cambridge has wound up being the best VistaVision house on the planet. Flawless presentation of One Battle there, and I feel lucky to have caught it.

[therewillbeblus]

This is getting a Vistavision release in NYC, LA, Boston, and London. I purchased tickets for the Los Angeles screening. One Battle After Another had some technical hiccups and I heard some stories about major failures and by the end of the first weekend a few frames were missing from the opening of the film in LA.

I think Coolidge Corner in Cambridge has wound up being the best VistaVision house on the planet. Flawless presentation of One Battle there, and I feel lucky to have caught it.

I came here to say this yesterday and didn't finish my post. Really looking forward to seeing Digger in the format at the CC (in Brookline )

[DimitriL]

I came here to say this yesterday and didn't finish my post. Really looking forward to seeing Digger in the format at the CC (in Brookline )

Yes, Brookline! I really need to not post before coffee kicks in fully. But yeah, boy, what a grand house.

(I feel really lucky to be in Western Mass, where I’m 90 minutes from a VV, 90 from 70mm IMAX and about 75 from dual-laser IMAX. It’s a small hike, but there aren’t that many triangles of large-format accessibility, like, anywhere.)

[therewillbeblus]

Wow, that's cool that you travel for it. It's a really great spot. Hopefully you can make it to the Brattle (in Cambridge!) for IFF Boston screenings starting in two weeks

[DimitriL]

Yeah, the Boston-area ones are pretty much a straight shot on the Pike so that makes it a lot more possible. Though when I lived in Fresno, I’d regularly drive three plus hours to see something choice at the Castro in SF, so I’m absolutely committed in any case.

(I love the Brattle too, though I think I’ve only gone to a few screenings there.) I wish I could get out to the IFF screenings but things are a little crazy right now, alas.

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

This is getting a Vistavision release in NYC, LA, Boston, and London. I purchased tickets for the Los Angeles screening. One Battle After Another had some technical hiccups and I heard some stories about major failures and by the end of the first weekend a few frames were missing from the opening of the film in LA.

I think Coolidge Corner in Cambridge has wound up being the best VistaVision house on the planet. Flawless presentation of One Battle there, and I feel lucky to have caught it.

That was because Boston Light and Sound designed and installed those. Their work is always excellent and the best you could want for projection. Warner Bros. handled the rest. It was apparently a learning curve for them, but hopefully they take that knowledge to the new Vistavision venues.

I haven’t liked Inarritu’s work, but I’ll admit that all the influencer level critics hating this and mfunk’s strong dislike for it makes me more intrigued.

[therewillbeblus]

I don't know if you saw Bardo but I think that's a clear window into the man's spirit: insanely long-winded, trying to be both goofy and self-serious, stylizing not always to good or less-than-horrifying effect.

Bardo is probably my favorite Iñárritu, so I was stoked to read this reaction to Digger:

Takes so many bold aesthetic swings it makes ‘Bardo’ look like an episode of ‘The Golden Girls.'

[aox]

I didn't expect this board to be so anti-Asteroid City. I think it is one of WA's best films. Certainly, from his late period.

I don't really like AGI's work (Amos Perros and Bable are about it for me), so I am trepidatious about this.

[mfunk9786]

I would like to reiterate for the second time that I love Asteroid City. The comparison was merely structural, and even with that there’s very little in common between the two films.

[beamish14]

Have debated posting about this one on the forum, because I know I haven't traditionally been a big booster of Iñárritu's work and it'll likely ring hollow at best to be throwing around hyperbole when hyperbole is what you might expect from me. However, this is one of the worst studio films I've ever seen in proportion with its ambition, budget, and star power, and I'm really beyond baffled by it. Without getting into plot spoilers (don't even want to give you something to click on, too early yet), there are multiple layers to the film, one of which comprises about 90% of its runtime. This layer is crude, scatalogical, unpleasant, and worst of all unfunny [by the end you'll understand better why it is this way, which makes it no more palatable] - in a theater where there were no seats left for walk-ins, I saw at least two dozen people walk out at various stages, and heard very few laughs. Everyone seemed completely puzzled, and this was an audience that was maybe half college students who were in great spirits and chattering about Tom Cruise in the lead-up to the film (overheard one couple discussing "This is why he makes the big movies, so he can do interesting work like this!"). Nobody (present company included) that I saw seemed unwilling to meet the film where it lives, but as the plot revealed itself, it became increasingly apparent that we were dealing with an all-timer fiasco here and the feeling in the air was leaden.

The audience vibe is besides the point though: The film does not work as satire (because we're meant to understand the majority of the film as deliberately shaky and poorly executed satire). It does not work as a straightforward comedy. And despite a host of excellent supporting actors doing typically good work (Stuhlbarg, Goodman, Plemons), this amounts to very little becuase the material itself is so confoundingly unpleasant to sit through. Yes, it is great to see John Goodman through a wacky wide-angle lens. No, it is not pleasant to hear him rant and rave about his "asshole cancer." Yes, it is wonderful to see a monologue by Jesse Plemons - but this isn't Ned Beatty reading Paddy Chayefsky by a football field sized margin. The entire enterprise feels a bit like Asteroid City written by a precocious middle school boy who is trying to shock his Social Studies class.

I largely agreed with the political viewpoint of this film but still found it just execrable, tone deaf, and the nadir of Iñárritu's eclectic-but-polarizing career. Despite being the choir, I felt as though instead of being preached to, I was being shat on.

If I had to forecast today, it'll be up there with some of the most ill-conceived big studio bombs in history, and despite costing 1.5x-2x more than The Adventures of Pluto Nash, it's no better than that film.

This still sounds better than Don’t Look Up, and at least it has a proven director with an actual visual style at the helm

I actually do think this will be a humongous bomb, though. Basically a Hollywood-ender for AGI