Vanilla Sky

This was extraordinarily good, it gripped me on every level. The soundtrack, holy, it’s so peak. Cameron Crowe knows how to pick ‘em. The first act is so much fun, Tom Cruise is somehow Tom Cruise², he’s in his absolute element and there’s so much off the wall energy alongside a legitimately good romance where you care for both characters. The 2nd act revolves around Tom Cruise dealing with how people treat him differently without his normal appearance and how detrimental that change of perception is on him mentally, this fully flips the script from the first act where he’s seemingly a well-respected guy with that playboy charisma. With his change of looks his personality changes with it as he becomes increasingly insular and unpopular, the line “We miss the old you because the new guy is shit” is inconceivably awful, and perfectly sums up how some people are happy to treat others that are no longer viewed as conventionally attractive. The final act is a mind-fuck, in a good way, it’s confusing yet I appreciated it still remaining followable. It’s so stressful and weird, I felt so odd as his dreams merged with reality. It’s pretty emotional as you realise his desperately sad situation and dark mental state he was in, as his insecurities took ahold of him. Possibly the best Cruise performance.