Make Page Six a Preferred Source “Digger” director Alejandro González Iñárritu admitted the Tom Cruise movie “is not perfect” after it received scathing reviews and had a disastrous opening weekend at the box office.
“I think definitely it’s an uncommon film. It’s a provoking film,” Iñárritu, 63, told the New York Times in an interview published Monday.
The filmmaker noted that he likes “taking risks” and prefers a polarizing reactions to his projects, rather than a “lukewarm reception.”
“That’s the role of a film for me — let’s start the conversation,” he explained. “My personal taste is films that try to tell me something in a different way.”
But Iñárritu did concede that other people have contrasting opinions about cinema.
“There’s people that want more certainty in the storytelling, and that’s OK too,” he told the outlet. “This is not like an ice cream. So, yeah, we expected that, to be honest.”
The satirical comedy, directed by four-time Oscar winner Iñárritu, stars Cruise, 64, as an eccentric and wealthy oil tycoon who races to stop a massive global ecological disaster that he caused.
The film, which came out Friday, has a 51% approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes. The audience score, meanwhile, is at 71%.
The Post film critic Johnny Oleksinski gave the movie zero out of four stars, calling it a “laugh-free turd” that “will have audiences stampeding out.”
Oleksinski also wrote that Iñárritu’s “pretentious frame story” causes viewers to “not take about 90% of the movie seriously and to zone out for long stretches.”
The $135 million (or more) film also failed to perform well in theaters, earning just $8 million domestically in its opening weekend. That’s Cruise’s lowest opening weekend performance in the US since his 2007 film “Lions for Lambs,” which opened to $6.7 million.
Want more celebrity and pop culture news? Start your day with Page Six Daily.
Page Six exclusively reported that Cruise’s Oscar chances have plummeted due to the scathing reviews.
“Tom is still beloved, but I don’t think people want to see him in a fat suit and makeup — they want to see him as the action hero,” an industry told us.
Cruise has never won an Academy Award, though he was given an honorary Oscar at the 16th Governors Awards last November.
Despite the negativity surrounding “Digger,” Cruise said he was “so proud” of the film in an Instagram post over the weekend.
“‘DIGGER’ is officially in theaters and I am so honored to have had the opportunity to create this film alongside such talented artists,” he wrote.
Cruise added, “The experience was truly unforgettable and I’m so proud of what we created.”
Conversation Your voice matters. Discussions are moderated for civility. Read our guidelines here
Community Guidelines Welcome to the Page Six Community! Our community is about connecting people through open and thoughtful conversations. We want our readers to share their views and exchange ideas in a safe space.
In order to do so, we've created a simple set of rules that will improve your experience.
Your post will/might be rejected if it contains:
User accounts will/might be blocked if we notice:
Thanks for reading our community guidelines. Don't forget, freedom of speech is not the freedom of reach!
