The Daily Mail, Brian Viner

Rating:

Rating: Four stars

I have now seen Digger twice, and the film worked considerably better for me the second time, once I knew where its twists were heading.

On my first viewing, I thought it became ensnared in its own elaborate premise and stylistic flourishes, leaving it not only confusing but also rather self-indulgent.

Even so, this is daring and frequently brilliant filmmaking. The Oscar talk surrounding Inarritu, Cruise and Goodman feels justified, while Ahmed, Sandra Huller and Jesse Plemons deliver superb supporting performances — as does an animatronic cat.

BBC, Nicholas Barber

Rating:

Rating: Four stars

I loved it. Some of the film’s extravagance goes a little too far, however, and most audiences will probably wish it had been trimmed.

After roughly 90 minutes, even the sight of Goodman shouting as snake-like veins rise across his forehead begins to wear thin.

Still, I could not help smiling as Cruise scrambled around the set, delivering booming sermons about the oil industry. The sheer scale of his performance, the script’s forceful environmental warning and Iñárritu’s wildly energetic direction are hard to resist.

The Telegraph, Robbie Collin

Rating:

Rating: Four stars

Digger remains in a state of constant uncertainty. I am not convinced that its internal argument about art’s inability to confront catastrophe is one the film can — or even wishes to — settle.

But watching Iñárritu and Cruise wrestle with that question is exhilarating, particularly when they do so with such visual beauty, boldness and excess.

The Los Angeles Times, Amy Nicholson

Tom Cruise has dangled from cliffs, skyscrapers and aircraft, but playing oil tycoon Digger Rockwell may be his most hazardous role in years.

Collider

‘Without special effects or stunts, the veteran star [Tom Cruise] holds your attention throughout, grandstanding in a way that feels like an Oscar moment both in its intention and its impact.’

The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw 

Rating:

Rating: Two stars 

‘As with Adam McKay’s Don’t Look Up, there may be a tacit consensus, understandable at some level, that at least we have a big mainstream movie which is talking about the biggest issue of our time, and we have a duty to suspend critical objection. 

‘Digger certainly resonates with Donald Trump’s greedy urge to despoil the Arctic and everywhere else. Yet there is something glib and overblown here. This film finds itself in a postmodern hole. And what do you do when you’re in a hole?’

The Times, Kevin Maher 

Rating:

Rating: One star 

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‘There surely exists an alternate movie universe where Digger is played by an actual ”older” actor, say Dustin Hoffman or Ben Kingsley, and in that universe that film is certainly more effective than this one. 

‘Cruise, instead, is in the unenviable position of being Digger’s sole selling point and its fatal flaw.’

Empire, Olly Richards

Rating:

Rating: Two stars 

‘Digger is a bumptious blowhard… Cruise emerges with a win, reminding us how riveting he can be as an actor, not just as a movie star. 

‘A role so oversized and absurd demands fearless commitment, which he certainly gives. The big swing is laudable. If only the film were more rewarding.’

Variety, Owen Gleiberman

‘I’m not sure that ‘Digger’ is going to connect, because it’s so full of itself — so top-heavy with importance. 

‘The movie cost north of $125 million to make, and that figure is not only too big to probably justify itself; it’s a testament to the arrogance of the filmmakers – to the assumption that we’ll turn out in droves for this ponderous absurdist lecture.’

The Hollywood Reporter, David Rooney

‘I was reminded of colossal misfires like Damien Chazelle’s Babylon and David O. Russell’s Amsterdam, bloated movies by directors so drunk on their exalted reputations they forgot there was an audience to consider.’ 

The Boston Globe

Digger is a ‘turgid, unfunny, and borderline unwatchable 128 minute mess’. 

Den Of Geek

‘[Digger] forgets the statement must still work as anything more than a self-flagellating valediction from a movie star.’ 

The Wrap, William Bibianni

‘Digger is what happens when you give the week’s worst Saturday Night Live sketch an inexplicably large budget and delusions of grandeur.’

The New York Post, Johnny Oleksinski

‘The trouble with Iñárritu’s pretentious frame story (sorry to be so vague) is that it causes us to not take about 90% of the movie seriously and to zone out for long stretches. 

‘There are no stakes to be found and no laughs to be had. There’s certainly no point.’

The Independent, Clarisse Loughrey

Rating:

Rating: Two stars 

‘As much as Digger has been sold on the promise that Cruise here is a revelation, there’s no real inversion to speak of, merely a return to the kind of work he did (over two decades ago!) before his blockbuster action streak. 

‘Even his latex makeover seems reminiscent of his paunchy, balding Les Grossman in Tropic Thunder.’

Indiewire, David Ehrlic

‘The reason why Digger is a nobler and more rewarding failure than Birdman or Bardo is because it doesn’t have to pretend that Digger Rockwell is a real person. 

‘He’s a living cartoon who’s exempted from the human foundation that was missing from those earlier films, and — for all of this movie’s psych-outs and detours — that allows Iñárritu to address his existential crises with a greater directness and degree of relatability.’

A former Marine recruit who was transitioning to life as a transgender woman has pleaded guilty to fatally stabbing a hiker, after telling police the victim was “what I would want to look like.”

Zion Teasley, 25, admitted to killing 29-year-old beauty technician Lauren Heike in a plea agreement that removed the possibility of a death sentence.

Instead, Teasley will spend the rest of his life behind bars. Heike was found dead in 2023 near a Phoenix trail, at the base of a barbed-wire fence, with 15 stab wounds. Neighbors discovered her body.

In a diary entry written before the killing, Teasley described “battling with my gender identity and sexuality,” saying he believed those struggles conflicted with his Christian faith, according to a 400-page police report obtained by ABC 15 last year.

“I want to live a life of serving god, but how can I with these and other sins in the way,” Teasley wrote. His attorney referred to him as “she” during court proceedings.

“[I know] I am forgiven for my sins, but it’s still a lot of pressure and it’s hard to maintain a good Christian mindset 24/7.”

Teasley also wrote that seeing “beautiful” women left him depressed because he felt trapped as “a man.”

During his initial police interview, Teasley denied ever seeing Heike anywhere except in news reports. He then made the unusual remark: “That’s what I would want to look like.”

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Surveillance video showed Teasley following Heike, a stranger to him, before chasing her and stabbing her with a pocketknife. He then fled by jumping over a fence.

Investigators later found Teasley’s DNA on Heike’s shoes. He was on probation at the time after serving a year in prison for armed robbery and other offenses.

Police arrested him several days later at his home, located roughly a mile from the trail.

Teasley’s former employer told investigators he had recently been fired for acting “aggressive” toward female workers. The employer also said Teasley had stolen clothing resembling what the killer was seen wearing.

Heike’s family said it supported the plea agreement because it spared them the emotional ordeal of a murder trial.

“After 3½ incredibly long and painful years, our family supports the State’s decision to enter into a plea agreement in Lauren’s case. This means we will not have to endure a trial or sit in a courtroom and hear every painful detail of the crime that took Lauren from us,” the family told ABC 15.

“While no sentence will ever bring Lauren back, we are relieved knowing that he will never be released,” the family added. “He will never again have the opportunity to harm another person or cause another family to experience the unimaginable grief and trauma that ours has endured.”

Teasley joined U.S. Marine Corps recruit training in March 2019 but left three months later without completing boot camp. The military did not provide further details about his service, citing privacy concerns.

Wes Henderson, a Kentucky bourbon executive, was dismissed from his position earlier this month after relatives accused him of secretly recording family members and visitors at his residences and a castle resort, according to multiple reports.

TKC Distilling, which owns The Kentucky Castle and True Story Whiskey, removed Henderson as chief executive officer on Oct. 3.

Relatives sued Henderson in Oldham County, Kentucky, in June, The Courier Journal reported after obtaining a complaint that has since been sealed.

The Department of Homeland Security is now reviewing the hidden recordings Henderson allegedly made, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported. News Media contacted DHS seeking comment.

Henderson’s attorney said in a statement, cited by the Herald-Leader, that his client “unequivocally denies the allegations in the lawsuit.” The attorney added that the complaint was expected to be voluntarily dismissed and that Henderson would “vigorously defend himself” if the case continued.

According to family members, they found concealed cameras during a June 2025 visit to Henderson’s vacation property near Melbourne, Florida. They said they removed roughly 15 devices, including cameras disguised as smoke or fire alarms, as well as others hidden inside a fan, clock, speaker, charging blocks and outlet extenders.

The relatives also allegedly discovered a camera inside a bathroom air vent and video that appeared to show Henderson placing a camera in front of a bed.

The complaint alleged that visitors were recorded without their knowledge while changing clothes, using bathrooms and engaging in sexual activity. Some of the footage reportedly showed Henderson, who is married, having sex with other women.

The filing further alleged that minors were captured on video while nude. After examining some of the recordings, family members handed the evidence to law enforcement.

The lawsuit said Henderson’s wife later authorized relatives to search the couple’s home in Oldham County, where they allegedly found more hidden cameras.

Additional memory cards reportedly contained footage recorded at The Kentucky Castle in Versailles, Kentucky, which Henderson owns.

The complaint reportedly named 40 people who allegedly appeared in the recordings without their knowledge or consent. Among them was a person described as homeless who appeared to carry a medical device into a restroom.

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The plaintiffs are seeking compensation for pain and suffering as well as medical costs, and they have requested a jury trial, The Courier Journal reported.

Charity Bird, an attorney for TKC Distilling, told News Media that the company is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit. She said Kyle Henderson, Wes Henderson’s son, will assume the CEO role at The Kentucky Castle and True Story Whiskey.

“The Board and leadership of TKC Distilling, the parent company of The Kentucky Castle and True Story Whiskey, have terminated the employment of CEO Wes Henderson, effective immediately, in light of allegations outlined in a recently filed lawsuit,” Bird said in an emailed statement.

In a statement to the Herald-Leader, Henderson’s lawyer again rejected the accusations. The attorney said Henderson anticipated that the plaintiffs would withdraw the lawsuit but was prepared to contest the claims if they moved forward.

Separately, TKC Distilling and affiliated companies have been sued over allegations that they failed to pay architectural and consulting invoices.

Henderson, a former firefighter, recently took a leave of absence as the Oldham County deputy coroner, Oldham County Coroner David Pendleton told the Courier Journal.

Meanwhile, the exact location of the recordings and devices remains unclear.

The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office in Florida and the Oldham County Police Department in Kentucky did not immediately respond to News Media’s requests for comment on whether they have taken possession of the evidence.

Versailles Police Chief Rob Young told News Media that his department is “not involved in the investigation.”

“We don’t know anything about it,” Young said.

Bird said that TKC Distilling’s board plans to “conduct a full and independent investigation into the allegations.”

“The company remains committed to addressing the matter responsibly and to ensuring that the investigation is conducted thoroughly and fairly.”

Henderson could not immediately be reached for comment.

A second person has reportedly died from plague in Russia’s Irkutsk region, according to local media reports published Tuesday.

The reports have heightened fears after a female laboratory worker died last week following alleged exposure to pneumonic plague at a Siberian research facility.

Hundreds of people who had contact with the woman were placed in quarantine. Darya Shipilova, 28, reportedly told medical staff that she had accidentally broken a test tube containing live bacteria while working at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute. She died on October 2.

Russian authorities have said the researcher died from “unidentified pneumonia”. However, neighbouring countries, including Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, have tightened health checks at their borders amid reports that the illness may have been pneumonic plague.

There are fears that Shipilova may have contracted the bacterium associated with the Black Death, the devastating plague pandemic that killed millions across Europe during the Middle Ages.

The Kremlin is now facing questions over the handling of the outbreak, as Russian media outlets report that a second person has died at Irkutsk district hospital after allegedly contracting plague.

Reports about the suspected plague cases have also allegedly vanished from the internet, including coverage by Russia’s Channel 5 broadcaster and the nationally distributed newspaper Kommersant.

Independent Russian outlet The Insider reported on October 2 that federal television channel REN TV had also removed all five of its reports about plague in the Irkutsk region.

The administration of Baikalsk, a city in the Irkutsk region, posted a warning on Telegram on October 3, advising residents to avoid travelling to Shelekhov.

“Due to unofficial information about a confirmed case of plague in a person in the city of Shelekhov, we ask you to limit visits to Shelekhov and nearby settlements until the circumstances surrounding this threat are clarified,” the Baikalsk city administration said.

The warning was deleted roughly two hours later, according to independent local news outlet Lyudi Baikala.

Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov urged the public to rely only on updates issued by Russia’s official health agency, Rospotrebnadzor.

“One should rely on official statements from Rospotrebnadzor rather than listening to various rumours and speculation,” Peskov said.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday that Washington was monitoring reports of a plague infection, but stressed that the situation was not a “cause for alarm”.

“There’s very limited travel between the US and Russia, obviously, but like anything else, something like that gets out, it could quickly spread,” Rubio told reporters before departing for Iceland.

“So we’re watching and monitoring it closely. I don’t think it’s cause for alarm, but it is cause for focus and a cause to just keep an eye on it. And we’re doing that.”

Speaking on Monday, President Trump said the United States would “help” Russia manage the reported disease outbreak.

He said: “Well, we’re looking at it very strongly. We just heard about it, and they call it pneumonia.”

‘And pneumonia, you know, years ago you could treat pneumonia easier. The microbes and the germs have gotten stronger disproportionately, but we’ll help them.’

In response, the Kremlin said it is ready to help the US fight outbreaks of infectious diseases such as measles, its health agency said Tuesday.

‘The Russian Federation is ready to assist the US in combating infectious disease outbreaks,’ Rospotrebnadzor said in a statement.

Russia, it stressed, ‘possesses extensive practical and scientific experience in ensuring epidemiological well-being, both domestically and internationally’.

It said Russia was ‘prepared to provide the US side with specialists, laboratory equipment and highly effective diagnostic and preventive tools’, to help address a range of worrying infectious disease outbreaks.

Among other things, it highlighted a ‘significantly worsened’ measles situation in three US states, and a ‘fatal case of plague’ recorded in New Mexico in June.

‘The situation regarding dangerous infectious diseases remains unstable,’ the statement said, also alleging that a outbreaks of typhus and Legionnaires’ disease had been reported.

Meanwhile, Rospotrebnadzor has vehemently denied the existence of a plague outbreak in the region. 

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On October 4, the agency stated that Ms Shipilova died of ‘pneumonia of an unspecified type’ and assured that ‘the sanitary and epidemiological situation in the Irkutsk region and the cities of Irkutsk and Shelekhov is stable’.

However, according to exiled opposition website People of Baikal, doctors in the region are speaking openly about the plague.

Locals have reported seeing people in PPE, including suits and masks, while workers at Irkutsk’s aluminium factories and nursery personnel are required to wear masks. 

And online searches for the word ‘plague’ – ‘chuma’ in Russian – are up 5,000 per cent from this time last year, according to The Times. 

Up to five hospitals in the Irkutsk area are in ‘epidemic’ mode, according to reports, with hundreds of staff and patients barred from leaving.

City Clinical Hospitals No1, No3, and No10 and the Ivano-Matreninskaya Children’s Hospital have been closed for a three-week quarantine, according to Lyudi Baikala.

Relatives of a woman giving birth at one of Irkutsk’s maternity hospitals also reported to the outlet that it had imposed a quarantine.

Ms Shipilova became unwell while on a field expedition with colleagues in Buryatia, beside Russia’s eastern border with Mongolia.

She was admitted to hospital on September 29 and placed on a ventilator but died three days later in Shelekhov, a satellite city of Irkutsk.

She came into contact with roughly 200 people, who are now being monitored over fears of an outbreak.

It has come to light that Ms Shipilova had personally worked with Yersinia pestis – the bacterium responsible for plague and the medieval Black Death – in laboratories at her workplace.

Immediately after Ms Shipilova’s death, Russia’s chief state sanitary doctor Anna Popova personally flew to Irkutsk to control the response to a ‘particularly dangerous infection’ – yet she has not spoken publicly.

Governor Alexey Tsydenov from neighbouring Buryatia initially referred to Ms Shipilova as ‘the woman who died from plague’, before toning it down to say she ‘may have died from plague’.

Mikhail Favorov, a senior Russian epidemiologist, dismissed the broken test tube explanation, according to the Moscow Times. 

Mr Favorov said: ‘It’s laughable. Someone working at the Anti-Plague Institute in Irkutsk wears a protective anti-plague suit.

‘If you break a test tube, the likelihood of infection is actually very low. In short, it doesn’t matter to the general public – they’ll believe the ‘broken test tube’ story.’

He added: ‘It’s absolutely hair-raising. We will not be told what really happened.’

Regional authorities are implementing a ‘comprehensive set of anti-epidemic measures’, according to Maxim Modin, the mayor of the Shelekhovsky district in eastern Russia, near the Mongolian border.

The inpatient facility at the hospital where the lab technician was treated has been placed under quarantine, and several departments have stopped discharging or admitting patients, Mr Modin added.

Pneumonic plague causes a severe lung infection, with symptoms including fever, shortness of breath and coughing up blood, which typically begin to show between three and seven days after contact.

Fatalities from pneumonic plague drop to around 17 per cent if treated with antibiotics within the first 24 hours of infection. However, the disease is almost always fatal if left untreated.

Reports claim that drugs used to treat the disease are running out in the region, leaving terrified residents piling into pharmacies and medical facilities demanding supplies. 

According to the World Health Organisation, pneumonic plague is even more severe than bubonic plague, the form of plague associated with the Black Death, which killed millions across England during the 14th and 15th centuries. 

Newark Public Schools spent $566,000 on an “administrative gym” that attracts an average of just seven visitors a day, according to a state audit. The spending comes as fewer than half of the district’s students read at grade level and an even smaller share demonstrate proficiency in math.

New Jersey’s largest public school district is facing heightened scrutiny after State Auditor David Kaschak identified the little-used fitness facility among a series of questionable expenditures.

Kaschak also said that “certain matters” uncovered during the audit had been referred to the state Attorney General’s Office for a criminal investigation.

The district spent $300,000 to build the gym without securing school board approval or soliciting competitive bids, the 36-page audit found. Administrators also hired a full-time personal trainer to oversee the facility, paying $82,800 during the 2024-2025 academic year and $86,940 the previous school year.

Yet sign-in sheets reviewed over several months last year contained an average of only seven names per day — all belonging to district administrators. The gym opened in November 2024 in the basement of the district’s leased headquarters, according to the report.

The audit cited several other troubling expenses, including $2.5 million spent on an unfinished school district museum and more than $700,000 for three separate “Senior Day” class trips that lacked documented educational purposes.

Auditors also found that Newark officials overstated student enrollment by 128 students in both 2023 and 2024. As a result, the district received nearly $6.7 million in excess state funding.

Newark Public Schools serves more than 41,000 students across 65 district schools and employs about 7,000 people.

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During the period examined, the district received an average of 81% of its general operating funding from the state.

Superintendent Roger León, whose annual salary is $330,000, has defended the district’s spending.

District officials said every employee has access to the gym and argued that taxpayers did not pay for it. They said the facility was funded through “wellness benefit funds” provided under the staff health program.

The audit also found that 10 active Newark employees had never undergone criminal background checks, including one worker who had been hired 27 years earlier.

New Jersey took control of Newark’s schools for 25 years after decades of poor performance and mismanagement. The city’s local school board regained control in 2020.

Following the report’s release last week, Newark school officials called the criminal referral “gratuitous and irresponsible.” In a statement, they said the audit identified neither “any intentional wrongdoing or violation.”

State Assemblywoman Dawn Fantasia, a Republican from Franklin, said the audit’s publication does not resolve the district’s problems. She has spent more than a year raising concerns about alleged misconduct and questionable spending in Newark schools.

“This ‘I told you so’ doesn’t feel so good because kids, families, and taxpayers got hammered while apparently the board was dozing, elected officials deflected or buried their heads in the sand, and the superintendent ran the district like a drunk college kid on spring break with his parents’ credit card,” Fantasia said.

Student performance remains a central concern. Chalkbeat reported that only one in three Newark students in grades 3 through 9 passed the state’s English Language Arts assessment in spring 2025, while just 17.7% passed the math test.