CineCrossroads: “Digger,” “Dr. Strangelove,” and “The Lorax”
The weekend is approaching, bringing three films about humanity’s remarkable ability to create a crisis and its much less reliable ability to solve one. In this edition of CineCrossroads, we meet an oil tycoon confronting a disaster of his own making, enter a war room where political leaders struggle to prevent nuclear destruction, and visit a colorful town where nature has disappeared in the pursuit of profit. Qazinform News Agency correspondent wishes you an enjoyable viewing.
Movie of the Week: Digger (2026)
Can the man responsible for a global catastrophe convince the world that he is also the only person capable of stopping it?
Directed by Academy Award winner Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Digger stars Tom Cruise as Digger Rockwell, an eccentric and enormously powerful oil tycoon whose actions unleash an environmental disaster threatening the entire planet.
As the crisis escalates, Digger launches a frantic effort to present himself as humanity’s saviour. Cruise appears almost unrecognizable in the role, adopting prosthetics, thinning grey hair and a Southern accent to portray a man whose confidence remains intact even as the world begins to collapse around him.
The ensemble cast includes Sandra Hüller, Riz Ahmed, Jesse Plemons, Sophie Wilde, Emma D’Arcy, Michael Stuhlbarg and John Goodman as the US president.
Blending black comedy, political satire and disaster cinema, Digger examines power, greed, environmental responsibility and the instinct of influential figures to control the narrative surrounding their failures. Shot entirely in VistaVision, the film arrives in cinemas and IMAX this week.
Classic Pick: Dr. Strangelove (1964)
The end of the world has rarely been this absurd.
Directed by Stanley Kubrick, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb begins when a rogue American general orders a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union. Political and military leaders gather in the Pentagon’s War Room, desperately searching for a way to recall the bombers before their mission triggers global destruction.
Peter Sellers delivers three distinct performances, including the unforgettable Dr. Strangelove, while George C. Scott plays an enthusiastic general whose confidence only deepens the crisis.
By turning nuclear annihilation into a dark comedy, Kubrick exposes the arrogance, paranoia and institutional failures hidden behind political power. More than six decades later, the film remains one of cinema’s sharpest warnings about placing civilization’s future in the hands of flawed decision-makers.
Family Pick: The Lorax (2012)
What happens when profit becomes more important than the natural world?
Inspired by the book by Dr. Seuss, The Lorax follows 12-year-old Ted, who lives in Thneedville, an artificial city where trees no longer grow and even fresh air is sold in bottles. Hoping to impress Audrey, the girl of his dreams, Ted sets out to discover what happened to the town’s trees.
His search leads him to the Once-ler, an inventor whose ambition and disregard for the environment transformed a flourishing forest into a barren landscape. The story also introduces the Lorax, a small but determined guardian who speaks for the trees.
Colorful, musical and accessible to younger viewers, The Lorax offers a clear message about corporate greed, overconsumption and personal responsibility. Like Digger, it asks whether those who benefit from environmental destruction can recognize their mistakes before the damage becomes irreversible.
You can read last week’s edition of CineCrossroads here.