Digger review: Tom Cruise takes the 'biggest risk of his career' in this 'love-it-or-hate-it' folly

By Nicholas Barber

Tom Cruise's performance as a bizarre oil tycoon makes Digger the "weirdest film" he has ever made – and could it be a flop. But there's much more to this divisive, satirical comedy than viewers might expect, including two high-concept twists.

Tom Cruise does things that seem terrifying to the rest of us, whether it's clinging to the sides of planes or riding motorbikes off the tops of cliffs. But his new film is the biggest risk of his career. He isn't in danger of breaking any bones, for a change, but he is in danger of being called pretentious and self-indulgent – as well as being associated with what could well be a humungous flop.

Most people won't go to see it – and some people who do will walk out halfway through

Directed and co-written by Alejandro G Iñárritu, the Mexican director of Amores Perros, Birdman and The Revenant, Digger isn't just the weirdest film Cruise has ever made, it's the weirdest film that almost anyone has ever made.

Most people won't go to see it – and some people who do will walk out halfway through. But that doesn't mean that Digger is a failure. It's just that it's a bizarre, hectoring, conceptually challenging eco-satire, so it's not likely to be mistaken for Mission: Impossible.

The first way in which it departs from Cruise's recent work is that his character, Digger Rockwell, isn't an athletic, ageless, roguish-yet-noble hero. With a mountain of prosthetic make-up, and someone listed in the end credits as "T Cruise's hair artist", the actor has transformed himself into a balding, greying, paunchy Texan oil baron. And we get to see just how paunchy he is when he is shown in his underwear in a cheeky homage to one of Cruise's breakthrough films, Risky Business.

It's the kind of extreme makeover that is amusing in small doses – such as when Cruise cameoed as the monstrous Les Grossman in Tropic Thunder – but for the main character to look so jarringly strange is quite a choice.

Still, nothing in Digger is subtle. Rockwell's historic mansion is decorated with more stuffed exotic animals than a Victorian natural history museum, but (irony!) he's deeply worried about the health of his scrawny pet cat. He has some feelings, then: he's also fond of his half-sister, a green-energy entrepreneur played by a gravely under-used Sandra Hüller. But this swaggering mogul doesn't care about anything except money – and he cares about the environment least of all.

When an underling calls Rockwell to say that his company's oil-drilling operation in Alaska has cracked a glacier in two, he responds by feigning ignorance, laughing off the problem, ranting about all the jobs he's created, and furiously passing the buck.

But reality hits when an iceberg the size of a small country splits from the glacier and starts drifting towards northern Europe. In a matter of days, a tsunami will put several major cities under water.

What's fascinating about the scenario is that it would have seemed embarrassingly over-the-top a few years ago, but now seems as plausible as a documentary

The blowhard US president, played by John Goodman, convenes an emergency meeting in Rockwell's mansion, so a dozen white men in suits and military uniforms are soon sitting around a table, shouting and swearing (there's a nice joke about the absence of women in the room).

A scientist, played with heartfelt distress by the excellent Riz Ahmed, struggles to get them to understand the situation, but eventually they settle on a plan. They will use their military might to change the iceberg's direction. And if that doesn't work, maybe they will take control of the narrative so that a US company isn't blamed for the subsequent devastation. The main thing, the president's religious adviser assures them, is that God is on their side.

What's fascinating about the scenario is that it would have seemed embarrassingly over-the-top a few years ago, but now seems as plausible as a documentary. The iceberg story is appalling, but it could fit next to any article about El Niño.

Judged purely a satire, then, Digger is powerfully resonant. But there is more to it than that. The film has two high-concept twists which raise new questions about everything you've seen so far. I won't reveal any more. All I'll say is that the first full-length trailer looked so exaggerated and artificial that some people wondered if Iñárritu had actually made a musical. The truth is even more surprising.

If this art-house extravaganza had featured an actor known for leftfield indie films, it would have been lauded as a daring experiment

Iñárritu is a multiple Oscar-winner, and Leonardo DiCaprio won his Oscar for starring in The Revenant, so some commentators (me included) assumed that the project was a blatant attempt by Cruise to bag one for himself. (Aside from being given an honorary Oscar at last year's Governors Awards, he has never won anything on the big night.)

But Digger puts paid to that theory. If Cruise was driven to win prizes, he wouldn't have made a film as eccentric or as politically blunt as this one. Rather than being a crowd-pleasing prestige picture, it's a love-it-or-hate-it folly – and there probably will be more people in the "hate it" camp than the "love it" one.

Personally, I loved it. Some of its excesses are, well, a bit too excessive, and most viewers will wish it was shorter. After about 90 minutes, you get tired of close-ups of Goodman yelling while snake-sized veins bulge out of his forehead. But when Cruise is clambering all over the set, delivering thunderous lectures on the oil industry, I couldn't help grinning at the gargantuan scale of his performance, the conviction of the script's grim environmental message, and Iñárritu's antic style.

If this art-house extravaganza had featured an actor known for left-field indie films, it would have been lauded as a daring experiment. But as it features the actor at the very top of Hollywood's A-list, many viewers will wonder what he was thinking.

But you have to hand it to Cruise. When he's making an action blockbuster, he wants it to showcase the most outrageous stunts ever seen. And when he's making an oddball apocalyptic tragicomedy, he goes for it with the same limitless, daredevil ambition.

First published at BBC, September 29, 2026

Stevie Wonder surprise-releases four previously unheard tracks from 'Song in the Key of Life'

Stevie Wonder promoting ‘Songs in the Key of Life’ after its original release in 1976
Photo: Richard E. Aaron / Redferns

By Kory Grow

Today, Stevie Wonder surprise-released Songs in the Key of Life 50: The EP, which contains four previously unreleased studio recordings. He recorded “It’s Easier,” “My Life Story of Love,” “I Can See the Sun in Late December,” and “I’m Into Livin'” during the sessions for his celebrated 1976 album but held onto them for the past half century. Now that he’s planning a tour commemorating the 50th anniversary of that album, he decided to finally issue them.

“We’ve lived with Songs in the Key of Life for 50 years, but there’s still more to hear,” Wonder said. “We didn’t add these songs to the album, but they were part of what I was feeling and discovering as we made it. They bring me back to that time in my life, and now they get to become part of yours.”

The recording engineers who mixed the original album, John Fischbach and Gary O. Adante (credited as Gary Olazabal), mixed the songs for the new EP. The songs further extend the legacy of the original album, which included another four-song EP, A Something’s Extra.

The tracks were timed to the 50th anniversary of the release of the diamond-certified album, which came out on Sept. 28, 1976. The EP arrived on streaming services at 4:54 a.m. PDT, the time the original Songs in the Key of Life sessions wrapped, at which time bassist Nathan Watts remarked, “Fo’FiftyFo’,” which became an in-joke Wonder and his musicians have used to mark the end of sessions ever since.

When Rolling Stone ranked the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, Songs in the Key of Life placed at Num,her Four. “[The album] encompasses an incredible range of life experiences — from the giddy joy of a baby in the bathtub (‘Isn’t She Lovely,’ featuring the cries and giggles of Wonder’s infant daughter Aisha Morris) through tributes to his musical heroes (‘Sir Duke’) to dismay about the indifference of the wealthy (‘Village Ghetto Land’),” the magazine said. “Wonder pulled from every imaginable musical source — the ecstatic ‘Sir Duke’ references Duke Elington and Ella Fitzgerald, while ‘As’ featured Herbie Hancock on Fender Rhodes.”

Stevie Wonder in 2026. Photo courtesy Buzz (Wales)

The four songs on the EP expound on the double album’s themes of acknowledging all life and love have to offer. It opens with “It’s Easier,” an upbeat breakup song with the message, “It’s easier to say, ‘Love, bye-bye’/Than to go around with a heart that wants to cry.” The similarly heartbroken “It’s My Life Story of Love” finds Wonder singing, “It’s my life story of love that never comes true,” though he sounds more hopeful than plaintive as he proclaims he’ll win his love back in lyrics he co-wrote with the Supremes’ Susaye Greene. “I Can See the Sun in Late December” is a slow-shuffling ballad about nostalgia for warmer times. And “I’m Into Livin'” is an easy, jazzy funk ballad on which Wonder sings, “I’m into livin’ for your sweet, sweet love, L-O-V-E, love,” his voice rising and falling with the music.

As on the original album, Wonder plays most of the instruments on the EP’s songs, including drums, GX-1-Dream Machine, Bass-GX-1-Dream Machine, Fender Rhodes, and electric bass, variously, in addition to singing. Gregory Phillinganes played the Rhodes on “My Life Story of Love,” and Watts played bass on “It’s Easier” and “I Can See the Sun in Late December.” “I’m Into Livin'” features backup vocals by Shirley Brewer (who sang on the album’s “Ordinary Love”), Thelma Houston (who later recorded the hit “Don’t Leave Me This Way”), and longtime Wonder backup singer Deneice Williams.

Wonder will perform the 17 songs from the original double album on a world tour this fall. It kicks off in Birmingham, England, on Oct. 13 and wraps in Los Angeles on Dec. 19.

First published at Rolling Stone, September 28, 2026

Former ABC presenter Margaret Throsby injured after being hit by e-bike

By Penny Burfitt

Margaret Throsby is recovering in hospital after she was hit by an e-bike on a shared path. (Supplied: Holly Throsby)

The family of former ABC Classic presenter Margaret Throsby wants to see teenagers' use of certain e-bikes restricted after she was badly injured on a shared pathway.

The 84-year-old suffered a hip fracture and head injuries when she was struck by an e-bike being ridden by two teenage boys.

The incident happened on a shared path in the Illawarra, south of Sydney, last Friday. 

The veteran broadcaster, who spent 55 years as a renowned presenter across the ABC, remains in hospital where she is recovering after surgery.

Ms Throsby's daughter Holly Throsby, a musician and author, said her mother was badly hurt.

"It was one of those massive fat bikes that kind of looked like a motorcycle, so it's very heavy and then you've got two boys on it," she said.

"It was a really high impact, so she's broken her hip and thumb and she had some really big haematomas on her head.

"It was a really sickening scene."

Ms Throsby said the teenage riders apologised and waited with her mother for emergency services to arrive.

Ms Throsby said she wanted the use of e-bikes restricted among children because it seemed "civically irresponsible" to allow unlicensed children to ride such heavy, fast bikes.

"These fat tyred e-bikes closely resemble motorbikes, and yet it's become completely normalised for them to be ridden by teenagers, often two on one bike … on the same paths as walkers, and often without helmets," she said.

"It feels inevitable that more injuries or even fatalities will occur if there isn't some change to legislation and enforcement of existing legislation."

The day after Ms Throsby was injured, NSW Police ran an operation in the region, interacting with 37 e-bike riders under new inspection laws.

In a statement, a spokesperson said they issued several fines and cautions, including 15 youth warnings.

A recent operation on Sydney's Northern Beaches saw 36 illegal e-bikes seized.

Safety concerns

In a statement, a Transport for NSW spokesperson said any serious injury on shared paths was concerning.

"E-bikes can provide a healthy, affordable and sustainable transport option, but bikes must be legal types, and riders must use them safely and follow the road rules," they said.

"On shared paths, riders must always give way to pedestrians."

Figures from the Sydney Children's Hospital Network show the number of children coming to hospital with e-bike injuries has risen by a third in the past year to 94. 

The NSW government earlier this year announced reforms including a power output enforcement of 250 watts, and motorised assistance being cut out at 25 kilometres an hour.  

But E-bike Safety Australia's Ben Horwood said the incident highlighted a need for better education.

"Young riders, particularly those without a driver's license, need to have mandatory education and also have accountability [by] having an ID tag on the back of a bike," he said.

Mr Horwood's company runs e-bike safety courses in 12 NSW high schools, including Bulli High School in the Illawarra.

He has called on the NSW government to mandate and fund the program in all high schools.

"A e-bike is a high-powered vehicle for a 12-year-old," he said.

"They haven't been taught how to ride it in 90 per cent of the cases and they have no understanding of road rules."

NSW Minister for Transport John Graham has been contacted for comment.

Ms Throsby said her mother was "in OK spirits" but it would take a long time to recover from the incident.

First published at ABC News, September 29 2026

Rod Stewart announces his retirement

Announcing his final tour, an emotional Rod Stewart thanked fans for his “extraordinary life”. AP PHOTO

London

Rod Stewart is retiring after more than 60 years on stage.

The 81-year-old Maggie May singer – who has scrapped a number of shows due to health problems – has announced he will quit life on the road for good after one final tour that will run from April until June 2027.

Stewart confirmed his plans in an emotional statement in which he thanked his fans for giving him such an “extraordinary life”.

“My dear friends, The time has come to say farewell to life on the road. After more than six decades, The Final Encore will most definitely be my last,” he wrote.

“I’ve been singing the music I love since I was 19 years old, and I’ve had the privilege of taking it around the world to all of you. It has given me a life beyond anything I could ever have imagined, and I hope I’ve given you some fond memories in return.

“So, may I take this opportunity to thank you for making this extraordinary life possible. I hope you’ll join me so I can thank you the best way I know how … with the music and one hell of a show. See you there.”

Stewart’s final tour – The Final Encore – kicks off in Dublin, Ireland on April 23.

He will perform in cities including Manchester, London, Berlin and Prague before wrapping the shows in Hannover, Germany on July 24.

Stewart has been on the road with his One Last Time tour since March, but pulled out of a number of concerts in June after suffering from an acute upper respiratory infection, laryngitis and vocal strain

He then cancelled more shows after undergoing heart surgery last month to allow himself time to recover.

His spokesperson said in a statement: “Doctors are pleased with his recovery, and Stewart is doing very well and has returned to his normal daily activities.

“On the advice of his doctors, he will take the next four weeks to recuperate and regain full fitness before returning to the stage. Unfortunately, this means he will be unable to continue his current tour dates.”

The Da Ya Think I’m Sexy? hit maker was said to have been “feeling better and very much on the mend”, and apologised to fans for cancelling his tour.

First published at Canberra City News, September 29, 2026

Håkan Hardenberger on giving life to new music

Legends

On ABC Classic FM

Presented by Mairi Nicolson

Many composers speak of an instant compulsion to write music for Håkan Hardenberger, and he says he's addicted to the whole experience of giving birth to new music. "I think I'm some sort of vampire. I need it to keep me alive. I couldn't just play things like the Hummel all the time, there's obviously something in the mental process of dealing with these new pieces that sustains me."

The Swedish virtuoso who’s been described as ‘the best trumpeter in the galaxy’ has inspired a vast new repertoire from composers like Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Brett Dean, HK Gruber, Peter Maxwell Davies and Sally Beamish.  Works that have extended the trumpet’s possibilities exponentially, and then some.

On Legends, Hardenberger also stresses that the trumpet can be poetic, as vulnerable and moving as a singing voice. He cites the famous Swedish tenor Jussi Björling as one of his childhood influences. “I always look for melody – no matter how avant-garde or complex the score. After all, isn’t that a basic human instinct?"

Hear the Håkan Hardenberger episode of Legends this Sunday, October 4 2026, at 8pm

First published at ABC Classic, September 29, 2026

Lost songs from iconic Australian rockstar found in garage

By Lana La

Three songs recorded by Chrissy Amphlett in 1998 will be released on Friday

More than a decade after her death, the voice of Australian rock icon Chrissy Amphlett will be heard like never before after three lost songs were discovered in a garage.

The trailblazing frontwoman of rock band Divinyls, Amphlett's trademark husky voice and charismatic stage presence brought the world the 1990 number one track I Touch Myself as well as earlier hits Pleasure and Pain (1985) and Boys in Town (1981).

Years before her 2013 death, Amphlett recorded three songs with Tim Finn, former lead singer of New Zealand's Split Enz, in 1998. The tracks were thought to be lost until Finn found them in his garage in 2023.

On Friday, the songs will be released in an EP titled Some Times.

In an interview with Australian Story, a documentary programme by national broadcaster ABC, Finn recalled the 1998 recording session with Amphlett in Sydney.

"It was a good time for us to meet because she was looking for something new, something different in her life musically," Finn said.

Around that time, Amphlett had split with fellow band member, guitarist Mark McEntee after a tumultuous relationship and was growing close to drummer Charley Drayton, according to the documentary. The pair would later marry.

Over several days, he and Amphlett wrote a trio of songs and headed into the studio to record them, with Drayton on the drums.

"She was so focused," Finn said. "She just wanted to get it right... I was in the presence of great talent, great charisma."

In a social media post on Monday about the 1998 session, Finn said he had reached out to Amphlett having been a great admirer of her work.

"We hadn't met previously but instantly felt a bond, a camaraderie of shared history as ex-lead singers of two brilliant bands," Finn wrote on Monday.

When the session wrapped up, Finn took the recordings home and planned to work on it, but "they were never fully realised".

In 2023, Drayton contacted Finn, about the 1998 recordings.

"I thought they were lost to the universe but remarkably found the two-inch tape in my garage," Finn wrote in the post, describing the songs as "incredibly important to me, Charley and those close to Chrissy".

"It was still in perfect condition and we are now able to share these songs with you."

First published at BBC News, September 29, 2026

New film fest at Roxie Theater showcases restored cinema

By James Ambroff-Tahin

“The Garden of Eden,” a silent rom-com from 1928, will screen Sunday at the Roxie Theater. 

Courtesy of San Francisco Film Preserve

When the San Francisco Film Preserve opened two years ago and began its work to restore and preserve old movies, the organization started thinking of ways to spotlight its mission for the general public.

The result is a new festival starting Thursday, one that celebrates the work of archives and archivists worldwide with 14 screenings of films that span decades, borders and film genres.

“It’s all fine and dandy restoring a film, putting it in an archive, but if it doesn’t get in front of eyeballs what’s the point?” said SFFP Executive President Kathy Rose O’Regan.

“In San Francisco, there’s lots of great rep programming and lots of cinemas around The City, but there’s no film festival dedicated specifically to archives, archival works, works made in different eras,” she said. “We decided that we would capitalize on that gap.”

SFFP will fill that gap Sept. 24-27 when it unveils Re:Vision — Festival of Restoration and Rediscovery at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco. Each screening will highlight one feature film as well as one short piece that complements the marquee work.

The mission is “to bring attention to all the wonderful work being done in archives worldwide and the magnificent pieces of moving image that people are working hard to provide access to,” O’Regan said.

There are currently more than 40 film titles in SFFP’s collection, which were acquired mostly through international channels.

“A lot of times, a film comes through conversations with other members of the moving-image archiving industry, so at conferences, festivals and events we have been approached by a number of European archives who know we restore works,” said O’Regan, who is a native of Ireland.

A still from “The Garden of Eden,” a silent rom-com from 1928, which will screen Sunday, Sept. 27, at the Roxie Theater. Courtesy of the San Fransico Film Preserve.

“European archives often have materials, particularly from the silent era, in their collections that are from American production,” she said. “So we have partnered quite regularly with European archives to restore American works back to the big screen.”

Personal connections through working relationships have also contributed to SFFP’s film accession process, but sometimes the addition of a film to the collection can simply be due to a genuine love for the work.

While the organization might choose to focus on acquiring the works of a particular filmmaker, for instance, “sometimes, it’s just movies that we have a real gra for, as we say in Ireland,” O’Regan said, using the Irish Gaelic word for love.

“The Garden of Eden” (1928) — directed by Lewis Milestone and starring Louise Dresser, Corinne Griffith and Lowell Sherman — is one of those films the SFFP found so enchanting that it added the work to its collection.

Film restorers don’t have living cinematographers and directors of works from the silent-screen era as resources for such important tasks as balancing colors and textures, or getting the right luminosity of a film as it was originally intended.

O’Regan said that with “The Garden of Eden,” SFFP got lucky and found elements that were in conditions it could work with.

“Two elements were at the Library of Congress, and one was at the George Eastman Museum in upstate New York, and we were able to compare these elements to each other in software we use,” O’Regan recounted.

“The George Eastman Museum’s print was in pristine condition, but for a few small areas of the film, where frames were missing, we pulled material from the Library of Congress that was in worse condition and decomposing,” she said. “Then, we were able to match the luminosity and contrast quality to make it less noticeable that we were combining sources.”

The delightful restored rom-com will screen Sunday at 3:40 p.m., accompanied by the San Francisco-based Club Foot Orchestra, which will perform an original score it composed for the film.

The orchestra takes its name from an experimental nightclub that existed in Bayview in the 1980s. Founder Richard Marriott, who lived upstairs from the club, created the orchestra in 1983, initially as a house band.

That year, the orchestra began performing shows at San Francisco clubs such as the On Broadway Theater and Mabuhay Gardens, and it went on tour in Europe.

During that period, Marriott saw “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari,” a German Expressionist movie from 1919, and it sparked his desire to compose scores for silent films. His orchestra’s new direction took it to venues that include Lincoln Center, the Smithsonian, SF Jazz and its home at the Castro Theater.

“There was something about the way it was photographed and the shadows and the subversive theme that made me want to accompany that — or I should say, I wanted that film to accompany us,” Marriott said. “We premiered ‘The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari’ at the Mill Valley Film Festival in 1987. Then, we followed that up with ‘Nosferatu,’ ‘Metropolis,’ ‘Pandora’s Box,’ ‘Hands of Orlac,’ ‘Legong Dance of the Virgins.’”

Marriott said the score he composed for “The Garden of Eden” is melodic and full of leitmotifs that express characters, movements or philosophical ideas. He said he used a palette of sounds that would have existed in popular or classical music from 1928, with hints of Duke Ellington, New Orleans jazz and Igor Stravinsky.

Calling “The Garden of Eden” a wonderful, wacky film, Marriott said the movie and the quintet he leads for the performance will put people in a very good mood.

“It’s a whole kaleidoscope of different sounds, different emotions and some very virtuosic musicians,” Marriott said. “It's like what we really demand of art — something that is thoughtful, that causes people to reflect deeply, but something that is also entertaining and perhaps makes people get a hit of serotonin.”

First published at the San Fransisco Examiner, September 21, 2026