Mandy Patinkin urges audiences to ignore critics and see Digger
Homeland star Mandy Patinkin has told his followers to ignore the critics and go and see Digger.
He called Tom Cruise's ecological disaster film an "instant classic" and "one of the greatest pieces of film I have ever seen in my entire life," according to Deadline. Ignore the critics. Watch it in a theatre.
Patinkin spoke in a video message filmed soon after he watched the film on the big screen. The clip was posted to Instagram on 7 October 2026. In it, he described Digger as "a battle cry for art, for waking up, for demanding an actual attention span of your audience and for the miracle of having a point of view," as seen on Instagram. Deadline picked up the video on 9 October 2026.
Digger was directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu. Cruise stars as Digger Rockwell, an ageing oil magnate whose drilling sets off an ecological disaster. The film tracks the human and environmental cost that follows.
The ensemble around him includes Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Sandra Hüller, Michael Stuhlbarg and Jesse Plemons. Each plays a figure drawn into the crisis around Rockwell's operation.
The praise came after a difficult opening in cinemas. Digger took $8 million in domestic theatres, meaning the United States and Canada, and $20 million globally, according to Deadline. Those opening figures cover ticket sales from North America and around the world. It sits at 52% on Rotten Tomatoes, the share of approved critics giving a positive review, with a C+ CinemaScore, a grade polled from opening-night audiences.
The financial stakes are high. Deadline has reported the production could lose around $150 million. Cruise has said he was "proud" of the film despite the lacklustre ticket sales.
Patinkin is not its only high-profile defender. Anne Hathaway gave Digger a five-star review on Letterboxd, the social app where film fans log and rate watches. Guillermo del Toro has also defended the film on social media.
For filmgoers, this leaves a clear divide to navigate. The numbers and scores point one way. Patinkin and his peers point the other, and anyone curious will have to choose which signal to follow.
