Tom Cruise's "Digger" Is Bad on Purpose, and Critics Say It Still Fails

Tom Cruise and director Alejandro G. Iñárritu have teamed up for“Digger,”a climate satire with a twist: it’s meant to be terrible. Cruise plays an oil baron and John Goodman plays a president, both reacting to an oil rig explosion that sends a massive iceberg toward Europe. The overacting is the point, and so is the on-the-nose satire.

Then comes the reveal. The whole ridiculous production turns out to be a play performed in a post-apocalyptic wasteland decades later. The film’s argument is that satire and escapist entertainment are not enough in the face of climate catastrophe, so it forces the audience to sit through a deliberately rotten show to make that case. Critics are calling it an ambitious but ultimately failed disaster.

The big question is whether an intentionally bad movie can ever land its message, or if audiences will just check out before the point arrives. Cruise taking a risk this strange is a story on its own too. So tell us: would you watch a film that’s supposed to be terrible? Drop your answer in the comments.