Tom Cruise swaps fighter jets and impossible missions for prosthetics, cowboy boots and an oil empire in Digger, Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s wildly ambitious black comedy about power, ego and environmental catastrophe. The result appears to be one of autumn’s most divisive films, with critics agreeing on very little except that Cruise has rarely looked, sounded or behaved quite like this.

Film details

• Title: Digger
• Premiere date in the Netherlands: 1 October 2026
• Director: Alejandro G. Iñárritu
• Runtime: 128 minutes
• Genre: Comedy, drama, satire
• Country: United States
• Language: English
• Subtitles: Dutch
• Age rating: 12+
• Cast: Tom Cruise, Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Sandra Hüller, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jesse Plemons, Emma D’Arcy, Robert John Burke, Burn Gorman and Sophie Wilde
• Where to watch in Rotterdam: KINO, LantarenVenster and Cinerama

What’s the vibe?

Digger Rockwell is an oil tycoon with enormous wealth, spectacular self-confidence and the unfortunate distinction of having helped cause an environmental catastrophe. When the consequences threaten to spiral into something even worse, Digger decides that the obvious person to save humanity is Digger.

Cue a frantic journey through corporate power, international politics and increasingly absurd attempts at heroism.

This is very different territory for Tom Cruise. Iñárritu buries the familiar movie-star image under prosthetics, a Southern accent, an expanded waistline and the personality of a man who has never encountered a room he did not immediately assume belonged to him.

The film plays the crisis as a feverish black comedy rather than a conventional disaster movie. There are shades of Dr. Strangelove, absurdist theatre and screwball farce, all photographed by Emmanuel Lubezki with enough visual ambition to remind you that subtlety was never really invited to this particular emergency meeting.

Trailer

Check out the trailer below.

Why you might like it

• Eyes: Emmanuel Lubezki shot the film entirely in VistaVision, giving its political rooms, industrial landscapes and surreal set pieces a rich large-format look.
• Heart: Cruise is playing directly against the heroic image that has defined much of his recent career, which makes Digger’s desperate need to be admired unusually interesting.
• Mind: The film pokes at billionaire saviour complexes, fossil-fuel dependency, political spectacle and humanity’s talent for demanding solutions without giving up the systems that created the problem.

Critical reception

Digger is proving sharply divisive.

The full review embargo lifted on 29 September, and the first wave ranges from enthusiastic admiration to outright hostility. Because the major aggregator scores were still changing rapidly as reviews arrived, any percentage published today should be treated as provisional rather than a settled verdict.

The Associated Press gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, praising its operatic scale, striking imagery and Cruise’s ability to push the character beyond caricature. The review compared its climate-crisis satire with Dr. Strangelove, while acknowledging that not every joke lands.

The Guardian went in almost the opposite direction, awarding 2 out of 5 stars and describing the satire as shallow, laborious and self-congratulatory. Its review praised some of Lubezki’s imagery but found the film’s political and environmental arguments muddled.

Vanity Fair landed somewhere in the middle. It admired Cruise’s willingness to take a strange dramatic swing after years dominated by action roles, but found the film loud, uneven and less profound than its ambitions suggest. The Houston Chronicle was warmer, highlighting Cruise’s transformation and the film’s extraordinary visual design while still finding it emotionally distant.

That split fits the early reaction from press screenings, where Digger was variously described as brave, baffling, fascinating and unpleasant.

Tom Cruise is receiving considerably more consistent attention than the film around him. Even reviews that dislike Digger often acknowledge that it gives him his most unusual acting showcase in years.

No major awards or nominations have been announced yet. The film is arriving at the beginning of awards season, so its critical division will make the next few months particularly interesting.

Scene to watch for

Watch Digger’s major speech to an international audience.

Several early reviews single it out as the moment when Cruise’s performance, Iñárritu’s satire and the film’s environmental argument collide most directly. Digger attacks the hypocrisy of societies that condemn fossil-fuel billionaires while remaining deeply dependent on the products they sell.

Whether you find the scene sharp, self-important or somewhere between the two may determine how you feel about the entire film.

Recommended pairing

Go big before this one. A hearty burger, loaded fries or something similarly excessive feels spiritually correct before spending two hours with a billionaire who considers moderation a character flaw.

Afterwards, walk somewhere quiet and green. Trees are useful reminders that nature can exist without a board meeting, press conference or man in cowboy boots explaining why he is personally going to rescue it.

Need-to-knows

Digger is Iñárritu’s first English-language feature since The Revenant. He developed the character with writer Sabina Berman for almost a decade before the film reached production.

The screenplay is credited to Iñárritu, Alexander Dinelaris, Nicolás Giacobone and Berman, with a story by Iñárritu and Berman. Dinelaris and Giacobone previously collaborated with Iñárritu on Birdman.

The film was shot entirely in VistaVision by Emmanuel Lubezki. The format runs 35mm film horizontally through the camera, producing a larger image area than conventional 35mm photography. It is one reason the film has been repeatedly singled out for its visual scale, even in negative reviews.

Cruise underwent an extensive physical transformation created with prosthetic make-up. Kazu Hiro, whose previous work includes transforming Gary Oldman into Winston Churchill for Darkest Hour, was involved in the prosthetic design.

John Goodman plays the fictional President of the United States. KINO describes the character as "Trumpian", while reviews have also noted the resemblance as part of the film’s broad political satire. The character remains fictional rather than a portrayal of a real president.

The environmental catastrophe at the centre of the film begins with Digger’s oil operation in Greenland, setting off consequences that threaten Europe and eventually international security. Despite the scale, Iñárritu treats much of the situation as absurdist comedy rather than a conventional disaster spectacle.

One warning before reading too much about the film online: reviewers have mentioned a significant late-film twist. Warner Bros. has asked critics to avoid revealing it, and knowing as little as possible beforehand is probably wise.

Zach Cregger takes Resident Evil back to survival horror with an entirely new story rather than another retelling of the games. Austin Abrams plays a medical courier whose routine delivery turns into a frantic fight through Raccoon City as one horrifying night keeps getting worse.

Film details

• Title: Resident Evil
• Premiere date in the Netherlands: 17 September 2026
• Director: Zach Cregger
• Runtime: 94 minutes
• Genre: Horror, science fiction, action
• Country: United States
• Language: English
• Subtitles: Dutch
• Age rating: 16+
• Cast: Austin Abrams, Paul Walter Hauser, Zach Cherry, Kali Reis and Johnno Wilson
• Where to watch in Rotterdam: KINO and Cinerama

What’s the vibe?

Bryan is a medical courier sent on what should be a straightforward delivery to Raccoon City General Hospital. Instead, his night collapses into an outbreak, a survival mission and presumably several moments when changing careers suddenly looks extremely attractive.

Director Zach Cregger, who made Barbarian and Weapons, is not adapting the story of a particular Resident Evil game. His film follows a new character while borrowing the structure and feeling of the games: moving deeper into dangerous territory, managing limited options and discovering that turning back is rarely as easy as it sounds.

That makes this less about recognising Leon Kennedy or waiting for a famous cutscene and more about recreating the anxiety of playing Resident Evil. Dark corridors, bad decisions, disappearing resources and creatures that really should have stayed wherever Umbrella Corporation found them.

Trailer

Check out the trailer below.

Why you might like it

• Eyes: Raccoon City at night, practical creature work, bloody effects and the kind of environments that make every doorway look suspicious.
• Heart: Austin Abrams gives the story an ordinary human centre. Bryan is not a super-soldier arriving fully prepared for an apocalypse. He is a courier having an exceptionally unfortunate shift.
• Mind: The film explores what actually makes Resident Evil work: vulnerability, dwindling resources and the tension of moving forward when every instinct says go home.

Critical reception.

The review embargo had not lifted at the time of writing, so there is no meaningful critical score yet. Rotten Tomatoes currently lists 0 critic reviews and 0 verified audience ratings, while Metacritic has no critic reviews or Metascore.

That means any glowing percentage floating around before release deserves suspicion worthy of a locked door in Raccoon City.

Pre-release interest is certainly high. Rotten Tomatoes ranked Resident Evil as its readers’ most anticipated film of September 2026, helped by Cregger’s recent run with Barbarian and Weapons.

Cregger has described the film as a love letter to the games rather than a direct adaptation of their characters or plots. He has said that the pacing was inspired particularly by the older games, where moving into each new area feels dangerous because resources are limited and you do not know what is waiting ahead.

Test screenings also changed the final cut. Cregger revealed that audiences initially found the film too funny, so he removed a number of jokes to keep the horror from losing its tension.

There are no awards or nominations to report yet. With the international release beginning this week, the first proper critical consensus should arrive very soon.

Scene to watch for

Keep an eye out for a sequence teased in the trailer where Bryan runs through a street while infected bodies come crashing down around him.

Cregger wanted the moment to feel physical rather than digital. The production reportedly used cranes and body-sized bags filled with fake blood, timing the falling bodies around Abrams as he ran through the scene.

It sounds completely unnecessary, dangerous and disgusting. In Resident Evil terms, excellent.

Recommended pairing

Keep the pre-film food simple. Anything involving suspicious meat, laboratory-style presentation or mushrooms suddenly feels like tempting fate.

Afterwards, walk somewhere busy and well lit. If somebody starts coughing strangely behind you, continue walking at a perfectly normal pace. Running only attracts attention.

Need-to-knows

This is a new Resident Evil story, not a remake of the 2002 film and not a direct adaptation of Resident Evil 1, 2 or any other individual game.

Bryan was created specifically for the film. Cregger has acknowledged that some fans expected established characters such as Leon S. Kennedy, but he has repeatedly stressed that his goal was to capture the experience and tension of the games rather than reproduce their plots.

The film was co-written by Cregger and Shay Hatten. Its producers include Robert Kulzer, Roy Lee, Miri Yoon, Carter Swan and Asad Qizilbash, with Constantin Film, PlayStation Productions and Columbia Pictures among the companies involved.

Practical effects play a significant role in the film. Cregger has spoken about preferring physical effects where possible because he wanted the creatures, gore and action to feel as though they genuinely occupied the same space as the actors.

The Dutch cinema release carries a 16+ rating, with warnings including violence, fear and coarse language.

Palestine 36 turns a pivotal and less frequently dramatised chapter of Middle Eastern history into a sweeping human drama about ordinary lives caught inside political upheaval. Annemarie Jacir moves between a Palestinian village and Jerusalem as British colonial rule, Arab resistance and Jewish migration from an increasingly hostile Europe push the region towards a violent reckoning.

Film details

• Title: Palestine 36
• Premiere date in the Netherlands: 24 September 2026
• Director: Annemarie Jacir
• Runtime: 118 minutes
• Genre: Drama, history, war
• Countries: Palestine, United Kingdom, France, Qatar, Jordan, Saudi Arabia
• Languages: Arabic, English
• Subtitles: Dutch
• Age rating: 12+
• Cast: Karim Daoud Anaya, Hiam Abbass, Saleh Bakri, Yasmine Al Massri, Kamel El Basha, Jeremy Irons, Robert Aramayo and Liam Cunningham
• Where to watch in Rotterdam: KINO, LantarenVenster

What’s the vibe?

It is 1936 in British Mandatory Palestine. Yusuf moves between his rural home and Jerusalem, where political tension is growing, journalists face censorship and more villages are drawn into revolt against British rule.

At the same time, Jewish refugees are arriving from Europe as antisemitic persecution intensifies. Jacir places these developments alongside the lives of farmers, journalists, families, rebels and British officials, building a mosaic rather than telling the story through one heroic figure.

That scale makes Palestine 36 feel like a classical historical epic, but much of its power comes from smaller moments. A conversation in a village, a radio broadcast or an encounter with soldiers can suddenly carry the weight of much larger events.

The film is firmly told from a Palestinian perspective, while acknowledging the European persecution driving Jewish migration during the period. It is interested less in reducing history to a single villain or hero than in showing a society being pulled apart by competing national aspirations, colonial authority and violence.

Trailer

Check out the trailer below.

Why you might like it

• Eyes: Hélène Louvart's cinematography moves between intimate village life, bustling Jerusalem streets and large-scale historical set pieces, with archival material woven into the drama.
• Heart: The film keeps returning to people whose homes, relationships and ambitions are being overtaken by events much larger than themselves.
• Mind: Palestine 36 offers an entry point into a period that is crucial to understanding the later history of the region, while presenting that history through a specifically Palestinian cinematic perspective.

Critical reception.

Palestine 36 has received a very strong critical response. Rotten Tomatoes currently gives the film 98% from 63 critic reviews, alongside a 99% verified audience score. Critics particularly praise its scale, ensemble cast, cinematography and ability to make complicated history accessible without losing sight of individual characters.

Metacritic is more measured, with a score of 67 from 11 reviews, placing the film in the generally favourable category. Eight of those reviews are positive and three are mixed.

Sight and Sound described the film as an engaging primer on a complex period of Palestinian history, while also noting that its large ensemble sometimes leaves individual characters drawn in broader strokes. The Guardian similarly praised its performances and historical perspective while finding parts of the film didactic and emotionally spread across too many characters.

RogerEbert.com responded much more enthusiastically, praising the production values, performances and decision to centre Palestinian experience in a traditional historical epic. The Los Angeles Times also admired its ambition while describing its historical storytelling as deliberately broad rather than novelistic.

The film has built an impressive awards record. It won the Tokyo Grand Prix, the top prize at the 2025 Tokyo International Film Festival. At the 2026 Critics Awards for Arab Films, Annemarie Jacir won Best Screenplay and Hélène Louvart won Best Cinematography.

Palestine 36 was also Palestine's submission for Best International Feature Film at the 98th Academy Awards. It reached the 15-film shortlist but did not advance to the final five nominees.

Scene to watch for

Watch the moments when Jacir moves between staged drama and archival imagery.

Rather than using history simply as background information, the film occasionally lets documented reality push directly into the fictional story. The transition changes the texture of what you are watching and reminds you that the people on screen are moving through events that were photographed, reported and lived.

It is one of the film's most effective ways of connecting a sweeping historical narrative with the people caught inside it.

Recommended pairing

Give yourself some space around this one. A simple meal and coffee before the screening work better than rushing straight from a busy day into nearly two hours of dense historical drama.

Afterwards, take a walk or find somewhere quiet to talk. This is the sort of film that benefits from conversation, particularly if you go with someone who knows a different part of the history than you do.

Need-to-knows

Palestine 36 is set at the beginning of the 1936 to 1939 Arab Revolt in Mandatory Palestine. The uprising was directed against British colonial rule and was also shaped by Arab opposition to rising Jewish immigration and land purchases.

That Jewish migration did not occur in a vacuum. Nazi persecution created a major refugee crisis in Europe after 1933, and Palestine became an important destination for Jews trying to escape antisemitism. These overlapping realities are part of the historical tension the film attempts to dramatise.

The revolt itself included strikes, armed insurgency and attacks, followed by extensive British counterinsurgency operations. Violence affected Arab and Jewish civilians, British personnel and armed rebels. Palestine 36 tells this history predominantly through Palestinian characters rather than presenting itself as a comprehensive account of every group involved.

Jacir spent around eight years developing the film. Production was severely disrupted after October 2023, forcing parts of the shoot to move from the West Bank to Jordan. The resulting film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2025.

Rotterdam audiences may also recognise the title from International Film Festival Rotterdam 2026, where Palestine 36 screened in the Limelight programme months before its regular Dutch theatrical release. 

Pressure finds fresh tension in one of history’s most familiar military operations by leaving the beaches behind and heading straight for the weather room. Andrew Scott stars as the meteorologist forced to tell General Eisenhower that sunshine outside does not necessarily mean hundreds of thousands of Allied troops should sail for Normandy.

Film details

• Title: Pressure
• Premiere date in the Netherlands: 10 September 2026
• Director: Anthony Maras
• Runtime: 100 minutes
• Genre: Drama, history, war, thriller
• Countries: United Kingdom, France, United States
• Language: English
• Subtitles: Dutch
• Age rating: 14+
• Cast: Andrew Scott, Brendan Fraser, Kerry Condon, Chris Messina and Damian Lewis
• Where to watch in Rotterdam: KINO, LantarenVenster and Cinerama

What’s the vibe?

It is June 1944 and hundreds of thousands of Allied troops are preparing for the invasion of Normandy. Almost everything is ready. There is just one rather important variable left: the weather.

British meteorologist James Stagg, played by Andrew Scott, believes a severe storm is coming and that the planned invasion should be delayed. American forecaster Irving Krick disagrees. Somewhere between them sits General Dwight D. Eisenhower, played by Brendan Fraser, who must decide whether to postpone the largest amphibious invasion in history based on forecasts made before satellites, supercomputers and weather apps existed.

Anthony Maras turns maps, charts and atmospheric pressure into the ingredients of a surprisingly tense chamber thriller. You already know that D-Day happened, but Pressure makes the uncertainty of the hours beforehand feel remarkably immediate.

Trailer

Check out the trailer below.

Why you might like it

• Eyes: Period command rooms, stormy skies and close, restless cinematography from Jamie D. Ramsay, who also shot All of Us Strangers.
• Heart: Andrew Scott gives James Stagg the weight of a man who understands that being correct may still mean sending thousands of people into danger.
• Mind: The film is ultimately about evidence, uncertainty and whether leaders are willing to listen when scientific advice tells them something they do not want to hear.

Critical reception.

Pressure has been warmly received by critics. Rotten Tomatoes currently gives the film 87% from 120 reviews, with a very strong 95% verified audience score from more than 1,000 ratings. Its critical consensus highlights the film’s unusual perspective on D-Day and Andrew Scott’s tightly controlled central performance.

Metacritic gives Pressure 69 out of 100 from 29 critic reviews, placing it in the generally favourable category. Twenty-one reviews are positive and eight are mixed, with no negative reviews in the current calculation.

Andrew Scott is the name that appears again and again in the praise. NRC awarded the film four stars and called him fantastic, while Time Out also gave the film four stars and praised its transformation of weather forecasting and military groupthink into compelling drama. RogerEbert.com responded particularly strongly, admiring its seriousness and focus on people pursuing the truth under extraordinary pressure.

The response is not completely unanimous. The Guardian found the film more conventional and less gripping than its admirers, while The Times praised Scott but felt some of the material added beyond the central historical confrontation weakens the film.

Pressure has also received a Truly Moving Picture Award from Heartland Film. With its Dutch release arriving months after its initial international rollout, further awards recognition may still follow.

Scene to watch for

Watch the confrontations between James Stagg and American meteorologist Irving Krick.

Both men are trying to predict the same weather, but their methods and conclusions differ dramatically. Chris Messina plays Krick with enough confidence to make the disagreement genuinely uncomfortable, while Scott’s Stagg becomes increasingly certain that accepting the optimistic forecast could be catastrophic.

There are no machine guns required. A room full of weather charts will do nicely.

Recommended pairing

Go for something properly British beforehand: a hearty pie, roasted vegetables or a warm soup. Rotterdam weather is welcome to contribute atmospheric rain, although perhaps check the forecast first. It seems thematically responsible.

Afterwards, find somewhere quiet for a drink and discuss whether you could make a decision affecting hundreds of thousands of lives based on a weather map. Then enjoy the fact that the most consequential meteorological decision you probably need to make this week is whether to bring an umbrella.

Need-to-knows

Pressure is based on David Haig’s acclaimed 2014 stage play of the same name. Haig co-wrote the film with director Anthony Maras. The play later received a West End run and was performed to mark the 75th anniversary of D-Day in 2019.

James Stagg was a real Scottish meteorologist who served as chief meteorological adviser to the Allied command. His forecasting team warned that conditions planned for 5 June 1944 would be dangerous. Eisenhower postponed the invasion, and D-Day eventually began on 6 June 1944 during a temporary improvement in the weather.

The disagreement between Stagg and American forecaster Irving Krick was also real. Their teams used different forecasting methods, giving Eisenhower conflicting advice at one of the most consequential moments of the war.

The production worked with meteorological experts and members of the Stagg family while recreating the events. The film also expands beyond the original stage play to show more of the military preparations and the human consequences surrounding the decision.