Top 10 Performances: Tom Cruise

With the latest Mission Impossible coming out later this month, why not take a look at one of the world's biggest movie stars (still, I'd argue) and his best film roles.

HM: The Last Samurai

A film I really, really like (and perhaps a bit misunderstood through its ad campaign which places Cruise under the big words THE LAST SAMURAI), this is one of the best examples of Cruise's 'cruising' through what is essentially an action avatar role, like Minority Report or Oblivion, though he's given an added emotional undercurrent here in his cynical American soldier's relationship with his Japanese captors that ends up being rather powerful.

10. Eyes Wide Shut

An interesting final film for Kubrick, and another very interesting Cruise performance as he's pretty great at breaking down his usual confident and cocksure airs into a portrayal of a desperate, fish-out-of-water man in New York discovering the lascivious underground sex scene. He's perhaps a tad overshadowed by Nicole Kidman as his onscreen wife, but he's still a very engaging lead throughout the story, and keeps your attention with his superstar wattage merged into an interesting combination with a somewhat atypical Cruise role.

9. A Few Good Men

Cruise proved very adept working with Aaron Sorkin's brand of dialogue in this solid military courtroom drama. It's technically a very simple role as essentially a righteous young navy lieutenant and investigator, and Cruise nails it with great aplomb, particularly effective in the scenes where he has to really let loose with the firebrand passion for justice.

8. Risky Business

A good old fashioned 80s teen romp, and Cruise is on top form here in the role that made him a breakout star. Another fairly simple role in the grand scheme of things as a high-achieving rich kid whose life spirals out of control when his parents go away on holiday. It's an exuberant, consistently funny and endearing performance by a very young Cruise, and a great indication of how far his star wattage would take him.

7. Jerry Maguire

Definitely one of the better soppy romance films of this sort - and the inspirational American Dream stories, for that matter - Cruise got his second Oscar nomination for his terrific portrayal of the titular sports agent. He has great chemistry with his co-stars, is a very engaging lead to follow. The 'you complete me' scene is corny as hell, but he really does sell the hell out of it.

6. American Made

A great recent Cruise performance that shows he's still got it. The so crazy it couldn't be true story of Barry Seal, airline pilot/Mexican cartel smuggler, has at its centre a fantastic performance by Cruise as sort of a more seasoned version of Maverick from Top Gun, relentlessly throwing himself into the role of the carefree thrillseeker, while also being rather harrowing as the fearful man constantly haunted by paranoia over himself and his family.

5. Tropic Thunder

A spectacular comic turn by Cruise in perhaps his most atypical role, donning a bald cap, fake huge hands, and sheer vulgar intensity all in the service of great comedy as Les Grossman, the constantly angry Hollywood executive. Cruise's abrasive edge is a sight to behold in comical form, and his rant to Flaming Dragon is one of the film's funniest scenes, which is saying something.

4. Rain Man

Probably one of my favourite heartwarming films to re-watch, in all honesty, and Cruise is just as essential as Dustin Hoffman in really making this heartwarming brother's road trip dramedy work as well as it does. He manages to make Charlie Babbitt appropriately douchey and yet charismatic and sympathetic to begin with, has fantastic chemistry with his onscreen brother, and most importantly makes his character's arc both believable and very touching.

3. Edge of Tomorrow

One of the most pleasant surprises of recent years was Groundhog Day meets Starship Troopers, with Cruise giving one of his greatest performances as a cowardly, weaselly army Major with no combat experience who's forced into a position where he has to live, die, and repeat a day on the battlefields until he can figure out a way to defeat the alien invaders. Cruise is hilarious in portraying the sheer idiocy and cowardice his character goes through at first before slowly morphing into the more usual Cruise action hero, and absolutely nails every step of the character's transition, plus he's great with Emily Blunt in every scene together in a very unique sort of relationship.

2. Magnolia

Frank T.J. Mackey was a revelation for Cruise as it showed he could use his limitless onscreen presence and charisma to play a misogynistic 'motivational' speaker just as effectively as his All-American heroes. Cruise is dynamic as this repulsive being to begin with and as the film peels off his layers of defensiveness shows the incredibly insecure and fragile man within so beautifully. One of the best performances in a film filled with incredible performances.

1. Collateral

One of the greatest films of all-time, and easily Cruise's greatest performance as cold-blooded contract killer Vincent. Cruise subverts his usual screen presence into an oddly casual yet calculating, friendly yet downright chilling assassin with such magnetism, creating a truly fearful adversary for Jamie Foxx's cabbie to overcome, and his take on the killer for hire role is so refreshing. He has brilliant chemistry with Foxx, and proves not only a fantastic villain for the film, but a surprisingly moving portrayal of a hollow, cynical individual who sees his job as just that, a job in a soulless world.

Ranking the 22 Films of 2018 I've Seen Thus Far

Note: excluding any of the 'late' UK releases, mostly the awards fodder from last season's Oscar nominations. 

22.  Mute ★ 1/2

The whole film is a incoherent mess that proves that sometimes, simplification is essential to quality. Duncan Jones' screenplay is convoluted without feeling at all complex, bouncing round various sci-fi tropes to weird amalgamations of them without ever feeling certain about what sort of story it's telling, whether it's the loner individual on a mission, the quirky but vile doctor who's doing who knows what exactly, the various subplots left hanging in the air. Visually it earns itself a half star for its technical aptitude, but even that feels extremely derivative, and the film fails to ever make a clear statement on what it wants to say.

21.  Pacific Rim Uprising ★★

A huge downgrade from the first film, which in itself wasn't even a great film, but an entertaining, cheesy big-budget kaiju B-movie that for all its faults was lovingly crafted and engaging. The atmospheric thrilling night battles are exchanged for somewhat awkward daylight fight sequences, Ramin Djawadi's score isn't quite as on point as it previously was, the newly introduced characters are on the whole pretty underwhelming at best (John Boyega tries his utmost), annoying and grating at worst, and its choice of a twist villain is ridiculous, more fitting to say an episode of a certain sitcom than this film. The design of the jaegers is pretty cool though, and I will say that the action scenes, though not the most original or atmospheric, at least don't cause migraines like the latest Transformers.

20. Red Sparrow ★★

The one and only reason I can recommend this film is for Matthias Schoenaerts, one of the most versatile actors working today, making use of his Vladamir Putin resemblance to great effect as a devious uncle/Russian government sleazebag  to Jennifer Lawrence's Dominika. He's rather striking in a fairly one-note role, a hurdle the other cast members can't quite get over. This is less an actively bad, more of an actively boring, film where every spy double-crossing, or visceral show of violence and nudity, all feel surprisingly muted by the plodding storyline. The uncovering of a mole in the government is a trope that can create great cinema, but can result in severely underwhelming films like this one when executed in a less than adequate manner.

19. Ready Player One ★★

I smiled a few times at some of the more nostalgic references, and there's an extended reference to Kubrick's The Shining that starts off quite entertainingly, plus Steven Speilberg's new trump card Mark Rylance is good as he always is. But on the whole a mediocre entry into the Speilberg canon. It has an extremely boring lead character it wants us to follow and invest ourselves in the journey of, the stakes never feel quite high enough to get wrapped up in, the dynamic and relationships between characters are poorly sketched on the whole, and while it is visually compelling at parts, the nature of the source material means that it always feels more like a Final Fantasy videogame being played onscreen than a film in itself. 

18.  Annihilation ★★ 1/2 

A disappointing follow-up by Alex Garland to Ex Machina, this felt to me like an attempt at the themes and emotional crux of Arrival, but played out in a much less compelling fashion. I'll grant that the final twenty minutes or so are intriguing, it has some interesting choices in the cinematography and sound design department in creating 'the shimmer', but it really drops the ball in giving me any reason to care about anything going on. The dialogue is largely stilted, and the cast apart from Natalie Portman (who's fine) is either wasted or underwhelming, with particular mention going to Oscar Isaac who made me exceedingly indifferent to whatever happened to his character through his poorly written and performed character. A film which really feels like it could have excised a lot of dead meat to make something more suited to Garland's strengths as a writer and director. 

17. Sicario: Day of the Soldado ★★ 1/2 

One of the more unnecessary sequels to come out, and focusing on an aspect of the previous film I'd rather they'd left untouched. If we were to follow Kate Mercer's (Emily Blunt) response to the fallout of the previous film, I'd be more than game for that, but instead the film seeks to explore the special tasks force in Mexico led by Josh Brolin's Graver (which to be fair is quite interesting), which in turn unfortunately greatly diminishes the intrigue surrounding Alejandro (Benicio del Toro). The character, so outstandingly performed and written in the first film, frankly becomes far less interesting the more the film explores him, which is a real shame, and to make matters worse the lack of Dennis Villeneuve's direction, Roger Deakins' cinematography, and Johan Johannsson's score is sorely felt. It's not a badly made, okay-ish action film as it is though, though definitely the lesser of the Year of Brolin.

16. Cargo ★★★

I enjoyed this just as a standard zombie film, with a particularly impressive performance by Martin Freeman as a father with the odds of the world stacked against him. I guess my reservation with it, common with most Netflix films, is that it didn't quite leave a lasting impression on me. I found it appropriately creepy as a film throughout, and rather compelling in parts, but unfortunately it occasionally dips into the horror tropes of characters making uncharacteristically stupid mistakes, telegraphed 'scares', and though the ending is satisfying the pacing to get to it is a bit iffy. 

15. Love, Simon ★★★ 

Though on the whole it ends up being a pretty typical teen rom-com-slash-drama flick, I would argue that this is a pretty progressive and important film, just in terms of what it represents to the LGBTQ film chronology, where the main character 's sexuality isn't dwelt on beyond the usual tropes of the 'secret admirer' plotline. I really did enjoy this film, despite its predictability, by the earnest way it fashions to relationships between its main characters, the excellent lead performance by Nick Robinson, and is honestly one of the better films of its genre in recent years.

14. Solo: A Star Wars Story ★★★

Surprisingly enjoyed this, despite the behind-the-scenes kerfuffle it all turned out into a surprisingly decent film. Now there's things about it I disliked, too much plot for a Han Solo adventure where the film flitted to much from one point to the other, a few of the side characters didn't really work for me, not enough Lando (though Donald Glover was great with the little he got). On the whole, however, it's a fun if somewhat workmanlike little adventure flick, with a great young Han Solo at its helm, and the central dynamic between him and his wookie chum being a standout.

13. Ocean's 8 ★★★ 1/2

Another surprise from this year. The only real issues I had with it were most of its attempts to tie it to the larger Danny Ocean universe, the under-utilization of certain cast members (particularly Sarah Paulson), and eh James Corden I guess (though he's not really in it that much). Otherwise though, I really enjoyed it as a very low-key, low-stakes heist movie that nevertheless kept me entertained throughout. Sandra Bullock and Cate Blanchett make for a rather endearing, entertaining duo, and Anne Hathaway is rather good too. The script is punchy, the heist itself is actually quite clever, and though I do think the ending could've used a little more 'oomph', a common criticism I have of the Ocean's franchise, I certainly wouldn't mind a second installment.

12. Blockers ★★★ 1/2

Well put John Cena alongside The Rock in the group of wrestlers who I just enjoy watching onscreen for their charisma and presence (and Dave Bautista on a higher tier, of course), because I thoroughly enjoyed this interesting take on the teen comedy trope of losing virginitity taking the female perspective. All the stuff between the trio of teenage girls and their sex pact is entertaining enough, but the highlight is definitely on the trio of Cena, Leslie Mann, and Ike Barinholtz as their incredulous and exasperated parents going through a hilariously overwrought, overblown and very entertaining evening of unfortunate events to 'save' their daughters. It might get a bit too crass in parts, but on the whole a very funny, and at times surprisingly moving, film.

11. Game Night ★★★ 1/2

Sort of an attempt at the Edgar Wright brand of quick editing, fast-paced comedy, merged with the more conventional Hollywood studio comedy (starring usual suspects like Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams), and you have a pretty good, pretty funny and altogether rather entertaining flick. The use of cinematography and editing is to be commended here as it amplifies the humour in the right sort of way, the cast are all game (no pun intended), and while I don't think it really makes much of the third act developments and loses some of the humour subsequently, on the whole this is definitely a worthy effort from John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein.

10. Hereditary ★★★ 1/2

Honestly, a bit of a disappointment, mostly due to its ending which grates on me the more I think about it, and really the whole third act as a whole I found pretty underwhelming in its twists and turns of sorts, and also how it retreated into fairly generic horror tropes for its 'climax'. Which is a shame really because up till that point I found this to be a very unique, rather chilling while at the same time strangely affecting exploration of not just the supernatural, but issues like depression, grief, and its fallout on the central family, with standout performances by a career-best Toni Collette and Alex Wolff. Its strengths are exceedingly felt in the opening two acts, and creates some truly spine-tingling moments, unfortunately the finale wastes it all which is a shame.

9. McQueen ★★★★

A very fine documentary on a subject I'd previously known very little about. It provides an interesting, snappy and occasionally quite poignant look at the famed late designer Alexander McQueen, his creative ballast and his life's work. Though its structure is perhaps a tad bit too episodic and it does feel like it skims a bit over McQueen's less savoury sides even when focusing on his demons, I found it a consistently compelling, engaging documentary, amplified by its most brilliant asset, the beautiful score by Michael Nyman.

8. A Quiet Place ★★★★

The fantastic concept of sort of a 'silent' horror film where any sound, however inconspicuous, is used to generate a constant sense of unease, fashioned into a pretty effective thriller/family drama combination. John Krasinski proves more than adept as a director in crafting tense setpiece after setpiece, and his ensemble of actors are all suitably equipped to convey the horror of the situation, particularly his onscreen/off-screen wife Emily Blunt. Some of the visual effects are a bit iffy, and though the ending works beautifully in an emotional sense it does feel a bit too deflating given what just came beforehand, but overall a very strong horror directing debut by Krasinski.

7. You Were Never Really Here ★★★★

Technically a 2017 release, but since I saw it this year I'll discuss it alongside this lot. Lynne Ramsey is always an interesting director to follow, and her follow-up to We Need to Talk About Kevin is as expected, pretty dark and cynical, uncomfortable to watch, and with lots of slow build-up and smouldering intensity within its protagonist, Joe (a terrific Joaquin Phoenix) as he goes about his daily business as a war veteran and private investigator of sorts. Comparisons have been made to Taxi Driver, but this is a far more smouldering, understated affair, and even the more volatile and violent bits are quickly done with, and honestly the least interesting parts of the film; where it excels are in the margins between the violence, where it ends up becoming a surprisingly tender, even funny at times, portrait of human pain and disassociation. Plus, another great Jonny Greenwood score.

6. Black Panther ★★★★

I'll get the flaws out of the way first: pretty bad CGI considering the budget, some side characters feel either a bit wasted or superfluous (you can kind of tell they tried to beef up Daniel Kaluuya's role after the success of Get Out), third act is a bit rushed. Otherwise it's easily one of the best MCU films to date, carrying on the intriguing storyline of Black Panther and the people of Wakanda. The action sequence choreography and cinematography is phenomenal, Ryan Coogler's distinct directorial style is tops, it features a fantastic and surprisingly sympathetic villain in Michael B. Jordan's Killmonger, and I felt it managed to act as a platform for some social insights and messages without feeling overblown or preachy. It's a timely film, that's for sure, but also a very, very good one, and I look forward to see what's next in store for the franchise.

5. Deadpool 2 ★★★★

A surprise, for sure, as even when watching the film I was a bit dubious about how the Merc with a Mouth would win me over this time. The opening, pre-credits scenes are definitely the weak link to the film, verging on being terrible, just in terms of feeling like they were trying to ape the first film too much and feeling a bit self-derivative, luckily after a rather rousing Celine Dion number and the introduction of Cable (Josh Brolin), it's pretty fantastic. Most, if not all, jokes hit the mark and I frankly felt the pop culture references this time round were far more naturally integrated (particularly loved the nods to Say Anything and Green Lantern), Ryan Reynolds and the whole cast are pitch-perfect, the action sequences are a huge upgrade (thanks David Leitch), and most surprisingly the emotional undercurrent is actually the best part of the film. A sequel that in my opinion surpasses its predecessor, even though it's not the most consistent film.

4. Thoroughbreds ★★★★ 1/2

Excellent subversion of the usual teen drama tropes, think Bling Ring meets Yorgos Lanthimos, though the finished product far surpasses either of those. Its led by two excellent performances by 'Brits I can't believe are Brits' Anya Taylor-Joy and Olivia Cooke, and a memorable supporting turn by the late Anton Yelchin, as we follow the twisted plans of two upper-class girls, one popular and one an outcast, to murder the former's stepfather. Things don't go as expected both for the characters and te audience, and a compelling, chilling story is further enhanced by fantastic sound and set design, and plentiful doses of very, very black humour.

3. Avengers: Infinity War ★★★★ 1/2

The culmination of a decade-long arc by the MCU has resulted in a rather epic, rousing and altogether quite excellent payoff, granting us a terrific villain in Josh Brolin's (who's having quite the year) Thanos as we follow him almost in lieu of a 'protagonist' as he collects the Infinity Stones. I found almost every new interaction between characters to work, particularly the father-daughter dynamic between Gamora and Thanos, the antagonistic clash of wits between Doctor Strange and Tony Stark, the great comic chemistry between Rocket Raccoon and Thor, speaking of which Thor and Chris Hemsworth have really exceeded expectations with his last two appearances. Of course the highlight is the extensive, one long huge chase of sorts between our heroes and the narrative focalizing around Thanos' story, and just how beautifully rendered the CGI is, some incredible use of music, and implementing the references across the MCU while making this film standalone as a pretty great one in itself.

2. Isle of Dogs ★★★★★

Few minor reservations about the third act, and the possibly problematic issue of the one prominent American character being a 'white saviour' of sorts (though that's not quite the case), I really, really enjoyed this latest from Wes Anderson, his best film since The Royal Tenenbaums I'd say. Its every frame is ogorgeous to look at, a stop-motion portrait of beauty in every shot, and each canine character has such a vibrancy to them. Beyond just being great to look at, it is a delightful, sometimes dark, often hilarious, frequently heartwarming, and always original trip with as expected great deadpan moments, visual gags, ingenious casting choices by both Anderson regulars and newbies. Recommended to any dog lover, and also for any Kurosawa lovers with its frequent references.

1. Leave No Trace ★★★★★

A stirring, remarkable effort from Debra Granik, who directed the excellent Winter's Bone and this time tops that with a perhaps less overtly grim, but no less affecting, depiction of that sort of backwoods world she explored, where the grit and the beauty of the wilderness is captured in such organic, naturalistic fashion. Within it Granik gives a full-bodied portrait of a father and daughter trelationship which is never just one thing or the other, filled with love, discord, harmony and agony, and played wonderfully by newcomer Thomasin McKenzie and the great character actor Ben Foster. It doesn't hit the audience on the head with a message, feeling like the recent Captain Fantastic refreshingly unpreachy, and releases its brand of emotional potency under its sleeves in rather powerful, understated bursts. It's a beautifully directed, written, acted and crafted film that is easily my favourite film of the year so far.