Léa Seydoux was recently a guest of Konbini where she visited one of the last remaining video stores in France. A particular highlight was when she picked up a copy of Brian De Palma’s “Mission: Impossible,” citing it as one of her favorite films and saying …
I’m a big Tom Cruise fan. To do something as subtle as “Eyes Wide Shut” and to also make an action film like this one, it’s mind blowing. He’s a major actor. it’s very strange to me that he has never won an oscar. He’s the biggest star in the world. There’s more of a mystery to him than, say, another big star, like Brad Pitt.
Music to my ears. Here’s what I wrote a couple of month ago about Cruise’s talents and the bewildering fact that he’s never won an Oscar:
Cruise, 61, and one of the last remaining old school movie stars, is still performing dangerous stunts, such as he does in ‘Dead Reckoning Part One.’ However, Cruise continues to bury his talents as a dramatic actor. I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again, many tend to forget just how great of an actor Cruise actually is. You watch a film like “Born on the Fourth of July” and immediately notice the staggering talent.
Yes, he seems to have an affinity for all of these ‘Mission: Impossible’ movies, but, as thrilling as some of those films might be, Cruise, first and foremost, built his career as a dramatic actor and only second as an action movie star.
His most recent non-IP performance was in Doug Liman’s druglord saga “American Made,” released in 2017. Cruise was absolute aces in that movie, using charisma, charm and humor to incarnate Barry Seal, a TWA pilot recruited by the CIA to provide reconnaissance in Central America.
He was Oscar-nominated for “Born on the Fourth of July,” and, if it weren’t for Daniel Day-Lewis’ landmark performance in “My Left Foot,” he would have probably won that year.
He should have surely gotten Oscar nominated for his villainous turn in “Collateral.” He also should have WON for the best performance of his career in Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Magnolia.” Michael Caine got the Oscar instead for “The Cider House Rules.” It’s obvious which role has aged better.
Cruise’s Frank T.J. Mackey in “Magnolia”, the slick televangelist-preaching male chauvanist, is probably the most sublime work of his career. Exhibiting a melange of uptight fastidiousness with ADD-like cocksure confidence, this was an artistically liberated Cruise, not thinking one bit about his image.
The sheer risk-taking involved in Cruise’s “Magnolia” performance still feels damn-near cathartic 24 years since the film’s release. He has never taken more of risk as an actor than in that film, and his talents were never more apparent.