Tom Cruise loves movies. This is a man who will happily spend his limited free time attending somebody else’s premiere, posting about 2026 movie releases he personally thinks audiences should see and then (of course) piloting his own helicopter to his own film release. So I was not exactly surprised to see him celebrating Digger after Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s strange, ambitious new satire finally arrived in theaters. What caught my attention was director Ron Howard showing up in the replies.Cruise shared a collection of behind-the-scenes photos on X, thanked the people who helped make the movie, and told fans how proud he was of the finished product. He wrote:DIGGER is officially in theaters and I am so honored to have had the opportunity to create this film alongside such talented artists. Thank you to the entire cast and crew for your dedication, hard work, and joy. The experience was truly unforgettable and I’m so proud of what we created.Then Ron Howard, who directed Cruise in Far and Away, jumped in with his own reaction, and the Oscar-winning filmmaker’s comments about Tom's performance have me even more curious about a movie critics cannot seem to agree on. That division is exactly why his response interests me. Howard did not simply drop a “Congrats, Tom!” underneath the post. The Apollo 13 and A Beautiful Mind filmmaker had apparently seen the movie, and he had plenty to say about the Mission: Impossible star’s work. He wrote: Impressive on so many levels. Great twists….Outstanding performance, Tom. Your work in Digger has to be seen, thought about and discussed to be fully appreciated. It’s one of those rare ones. Full of surprises and great choices. BravoThat tracks with basically everything the Top Gun franchise helmer has said about making Digger. The movie represents a pretty dramatic detour from the franchise-heavy stretch of his career, putting him in heavy prosthetics as Digger Rockwell, an obscenely wealthy oil tycoon whose actions help trigger an environmental catastrophe. Iñárritu surrounded him with a ridiculous cast, too. Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Sandra Hüller, Jesse Plemons, Michael Stuhlbarg and Emma D’Arcy all appear in the film, which was shot entirely in VistaVision.Reviews have been all over the place. Digger currently sits around the halfway mark with critics on Rotten Tomatoes, with reactions ranging from people calling it wildly inventive to others finding the whole thing exhausting and self-important. Howard, who has been directing movies for nearly 50 years, lends significant credibility to his endorsement. He has a deep understanding of performances, and I appreciate that his praise isn't generic. When he says Cruise’s work needs to be “thought about and discussed” after viewing, it implies something more intriguing at play than just another instance of the actor excelling at being himself.That lines up with some of the more positive reactions to Digger. Even critics split on the movie have singled out Cruise for throwing himself into a deliberately obnoxious, exaggerated character far removed from Ethan Hunt or Pete “Maverick” Mitchell. Cruise praising his own movie might be a bit expected, but Ron Howard showing up unsolicited to call the performance “one of those rare ones,” though? Yeah, that moves the needle for me.Digger is playing in theaters now, and given how violently divided people seem to be over it (and even Guillermo del Toro defending it against haters), this feels like one I need to see before the internet decides what I’m supposed to think.