Lost: My Explanation (Spoiler Warning!!!)

"If we can't live together, we're gonna die alone."

- Dr. Jack Shephard during Season 1 (played by Matthew Fox)

I've been trying to decipher the final 2 1/2 hour episode of Lost since I watched in on Sunday night. I re-watched today, and I think I know what happened. Here is my explanation of the "flash sideways," the Island, and Jack Shephard.

Each season of Lost (post season 2) brought us something new as a means of storytelling. Season 6 a.k.a. The Final Season gave us the "flash sideways," which is simply an alternate reality that the characters "all made together" to "find each other" and to get closure so they could all move on. I think of it as sort of a stepping stone to Heaven. They all became reunited in this "place" realizing that they were meant to be together, that they were meant to be on The Island and know and love each other there in real life. The Island time of coming to know each other was the most important part of their lives as Jack's Dad puts it, so they (in some far off future after they have all died) created a perfect "real world" where they could become intwined with each other and remember that they once were all together on The Island and that it was important that they were there. Their destinies were fulfilled on The Island. It really DID matter that Jack stayed to save the Island and die there. The only way they could all be together again was for Jack to finally fulfill his destiny. Saving the Island, restoring good and peace.

The show is truly about Jack and his inability to get things right. He had to keep trying to fulfill his destiny. He had to become more like Locke was in the beginning. He had to believe in something, to gain and understand and practice faith in something. He had to keep trying to get it right.

Trying to "fix everything" didn't work in the first few seasons, leaving the Island didn't work (seasons 3/4), coming back and trying to blow up the Island didn't work (season 5). Season 6, the final season, was about Jack becoming what the Island wanted him to be, to accomplish. He could only make things truly right with his family (his father, Claire)in the "flash sideways." He kept getting chances to be truly good, to do what he was meant to do, and the only way for him to do that, to save everyone was for him to die on the Island. Don't worry, I'm not ready to start delving into the Biblical allegory just yet in this, my initial thoughts on "The End." However, Jack was always meant to die, to sacrifice himself for the Island, for good. 


In Season 2, Jack and Locke were at odds on how to protect The Island (ie. the hatch, the button, "Man of Science, Man of Faith"). They were polar opposites. When Locke died, Jack brought him back to the Island. Locke became the Evil side and Jack became the Good. But Jack knew that this evil wasn't really Locke. The fact that Jack made Locke walk again in the "flash sideways" gives me the most satisfaction. By doing this, Jack was able to prove to HIMSELF that he could be a "Man of Faith" like Locke, a man of miracles, and could finally be at peace with all of those he came to love on The Island. He knew he had to die, so he could see them all again and "let go"/"move on." In doing this, he didn't truly "die alone."

Note: I have without a doubt left plenty of things out of this as far as many other characters go, specifically the importance of Desmond, Ben, and Hurley. Maybe you readers can add them into my discussion here, and we can see what happens. 

She's Out of My League: In a League of It's Own

I've been watching a lot of comedies recently. And I haven't seen one quite as nice as She's Out of My League in a while. In a time where so many comedies rely on gross out gags and shock value, this movie rises above. Sure, it's not as funny as something out of the Apatow camp. It's not as slick or cool or even heartfelt as the reigning romantic comedy of last year, 500 Days of Summer. However, it offers us something more than cool and sometimes better than funny. And that is heart. 

It finds greatness with it's acting. Jay Baruchel (of supporting fame in Knocked Up and Tropic Thunder) is a really likable actor in that he doesn't really seem like an actor. He plays Kirk, the hapless 5 and airport security agent, like a guy you know, a nice guy, someone you would actually hang out with. It doesn't seem so strange that a girl like Molly, a 10, played by the stunningly beautiful Alice Eve, would like him. He seems real and so do his buddies (T.J. Miller, Mike Vogel, and Nate Torrance), who surround him with horrible advice on how to handle his new found love interest. She meets his crazy family and ex-girlfriend (Lindsey Sloane), which provides some truly hilarious stuff and adds to the movie's overall charm. This movie works because we can identify with Kirk's nervousness and awkwardness and shyness. It makes you root for him, for them, for it all to work out.

This movie is formula romantic comedy. It's been done before. But I laughed a lot watching it. Actually, I should say I laughed with this movie. It is not going for Oscars and it's not going for shock and/or awe. It's a simple movie about a good guy with good friends who want him to land the girl of his dreams.

***1/2 out of ****

The Future: Brought to You by James Cameron

I knew as I was watching there has never been a movie like James Cameron's Avatar. I was seeing something unique and special. I don't usually care for mega-budget special effects movie, this one is special. It is one of the best movie experiences of my life. It is a feast for the eyes that boasts incredible performances by little known actors who will most likely become movie stars. It is an achievement in visual effects like no other movie before it. It is, at once, an allegory about American politics, war-mongering, and our society's destruction of nature and natural resources, and a special effects extravaganza for the ages. Both parts work and work well.

Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a paraplegic ex-Marine, is offered a job working on the planet Pandora as a genetic fill-in for his recently deceased brother. This brother has had an "Avatar" created for him, which is a remotely controlled body made from human traits and those from the Na'vi, the indigenous "people" of Pandora. Jake's avatar gets lost in the forests of Pandora and is discovered by Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), a young Na'vi woman. Jake begins by following orders from his military superiors gathering intelligence for his warmongering bosses who wish to mine the planet for this mineral that Earth needs (my guess is that Earth at this point...the year 2154...has been pretty much demolished by technology and suburban sprawl and this mineral from Pandora replenishes resources in some way). However, Jake soon realizes how special these people and their planet is and things change.

I won't go into anymore plot detail. That's all you should know going in. However, you should know that this movie needs to be seen on the big screen and probably in 3D or IMAX 3D. I saw it on a regular movie screen and was still blown away by its visual brilliance. I'm talking the most amazing light and color and natural beauty and bizarre creatures and futuristic machinery ever created for a movie. And, although the Na'vi themselves are animated, they actually look and move like the actors playing them through the use of that motion capture technology that gave us "Gollom" in the LOTR films and Zemeckis's last three (Polar Express, Beowulf, A Christmas Carol). It is used to perfection here. It seems more realistic. The digital characters are given real space in physical locations like military bases and among trees and waterfalls. This movie is breathtaking. I can't even begin to fathom how something like this is made. James Cameron (writer/director for the first time since Titanic in 1997) will be hard to beat for the Best Director Oscar. He has proven, again, that he is a master of technology and a master storyteller.

As for me, I'll be going back to see it in IMAX. Who's coming with me?

Walt Whitman's Blue Jeans

Levi Jeans commercials make me want to google them. There was the brilliant one from last year with the girl and the guy stripping while one-upping each other with selfish lies:





Then there was one even further back that I still remember with actor Gael Garcia Bernal and the Air song, "Playground Love:"





Then, last summer, I saw this one in front of a movie (not sure which), but it has stuck with me ever since, and I still see it on TV every once in a while. It is probably my favorite advertisement of the last few years:





It's very Dead Poet's Society with a touch of too hipster for school. And that's just what I like about it. It gets you marching to the beat of a different drummer...Walt Whitman himself. I literally mean that. I walk around Clinton Middle School with these images in my head (stellar camera work in this thing) and the sound of that poem in my head. It flows so well. The imagery in those stanzas makes you wish you were a true artist. 


COME, my tan-faced children,
Follow well in order, get your weapons ready,

Have you your pistols? Have you your sharp-edged axes?

Pioneers! O pioneers!


For we cannot tarry here,

We must march my darlings, we must bear the brunt of danger,

We the youthful sinewy races, all the rest on us depend,

Pioneers! O pioneers!


O you youths, Western youths,

So impatient, full of action, full of manly pride and friendship,

Plain I see you Western youths, see you tramping with the foremost,

Pioneers! O pioneers!

When I hear these words I can feel Whitman's fascination with America, with America heading West, a pioneer preaching "pioneers!" They make me want to be a pioneer. A leader of "tan-faced children." "Go West, young man!" I say in my head. These powerful words, how they make me want to say how much I love them, how their syllabic stresses and unstresses compose a beat, a melody. And how with the help of creative cinematography and editing, music, bodies in motion, they are transformed into something cool, here and now, worth watching. I haven't gone out to buy any Levi's yet, but I think Walt might just be calling me to get some.

A pioneer in denim, I'll be. 

A denim pioneer of lessons in poetry. 

My eighth graders participated in a project Monday thru Wednesday of this past week that had them on a scavenger hunt for simile, metaphor, personification, alliteration, repetition (hey! I just found some of that "Pioneers! O pioneers!"), end rhyme, internal rhyme, hyperbole, etc. We placed 35 poems around the CMS auditorium, and the students had to go around in groups and pick out examples of the aforementioned figurative language. We only had one Whitman poem up there, "I Hear America Singing" (personification). A better one for the age group I have. However, I am often disheartened when I see these children (young adults?) wondering around without care or passion for the things I love so much. I doubt that more than a handful really got something out of the project. 

In a way, I feel like I'm trying to achieve through teaching poetry what Whitman achieved with in writing this poem. That is, trying to inspire the young and the lost to go out and explore, to think outside the box, to be a little smarter. And I wonder if, when they (my students) see this commercial on TV, they think it's cool and get the itch to google it. I mean go back up and read those beginning stanzas in red, they speak directly to them. And they make me want to try harder next time around. 

Top Ten of the Decade

My dad sent me an email with the following link:

http://www.rollingstone.com/photos/gallery/31234572/peter_travers_10_best_movies_of_t/

And this question: 


What do you think?


Here is my response, since I have some time on my hands: 


Pop,

I think it's a damn good list that is just lacking a bit in variety. The closest thing he as to comedy on there is The Incredibles, which I don't really like that much. (Finding Nemo (2003) is the best Pixar movie of the decade, in my opinion.) I made a list of my own, which, I know, leaves some great ones out (Kill Bill, Inglorious Basterds, Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby, Juno, Into the Wild, Minority Report, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, etc), but it adds in some lesser known movies (Moonlight Mile and All the Real Girls) and some big-time, but important, comedies (The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Superbad). Here it is:

1. Moonlight Mile (Brad Silberling, 2002)

This is a simple movie named after a 1970 Rolling Stones song that is loaded with an acting tour-de-force. Dustin Hoffman and Susan Sarandon take in their murdered daughter's fiance (Jake Gyllenhaal...who steals the show), and we see them grieve and cope together in the early 1970s. Ellen Pompeo (pre-Gray's Anatomy) shines like the sun as the love interest. It seems bleak from the description, but this movie will leave you with a smile on your face for days, months, years. I saw it in the theater in 2002, and I still think about it weekly. One of the best movie experiences of my life! Simple, true, and brilliant!

2. Almost Famous (Cameron Crowe, 2000)

Rock 'n' roll period piece (based on Cameron Crowe's actual experiences as a teen journalist) about a 15-year-old rock writer in over his head writing a cover story on an Allman-like rock band for Rolling Stone. It gave us Kate Hudson, who made everyone in America fall in love, and it made every music worshipping teenage boy jealous of Cameron Crowe's life story. This movie will grab your ears and your heart and make you realize why life is great.

3. Children of Men (Alfonso Cuaron, 2006)

The most realistic-seeming portrait of the future I've seen. Cuaron's skill behind the camera is nothing short of amazing. There is a 13-minute action sequence in this movie that is composed of one long take. No cuts at all! Even if you don't care about or notice that type of stuff, it doesn't matter because the story is so compelling and well-told.

4. All the Real Girls (David Gordon Green, 2003)

One of David Gordon Green's first three Southern masterpieces along with George Washington (2000) and Undertow (2004), this movie explores a relationship between a small-town womanizer and his best friend's innocent younger sister. The power of first love has never been more accurately portrayed, and it hits home with me because it was filmed and is set in small-town Western North Carolina. It put Paul Schneider, a great actor, on the map. And gave Zooey Deschanel a starring role for the first time. They are both incredible.

5. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, 2004)

The power of love in reverse with a title taken from an Alexander Pope poem. Jim Carrey as you've never seen him before, trying to hold onto memories as they're being erased from his brain. Kate Winslet makes you realize how much you love her too. And it's just so weird! Plus, Jon Brion's score will haunt you for life. Just one in a series of writer Charlie Kaufman's brain-busting movies of the 2000s.

6. High Fidelity (Stephen Frears, 2000)

Quite simply, one of the best comedies I've seen. You can quote almost any line in it. You know someone is cool if they quote this movie. Jack Black is at the top of his game, Cusack is always good, and Tim Robbins' cameo role is stellar. You have to include a movie that glorifies elitist list-making in an elitist's list.

7. The Departed (Martin Scorsese, 2006)

Scorsese at his beat-ass best...Boston-style! Probably one of the best ensemble casts ever assembled (Leo, Matty Damon, Mark Wahlberg, Alec Baldwin, Jack Nicholson, Martin Sheen) with an ending that I never saw coming and that still shocks me every single time.

8. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Andrew Dominik, 2007)

The most beautifully filmed movie I've ever seen. The cinematography is unlike anything you will ever see. The music by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis is heartbreaking. And Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck give unbelievable performances.

9. No Country for Old Men (Joel and Ethan Coen, 2007)

Cormac McCarthy's bleak, violent, and existential look at America given a visual pulse by the best American filmmakers working today. Enough said!

10. The 40-Year-Old Virgin (Judd Apatow, 2005) / Superbad (Greg Mottola, 2007)

I picked these two comedies because of their success across the board. Everybody loves these movies, and I cannot exclude myself from that list. These are two of the most quotable movies ever. And they are both honest and true to the way men, from high school to age 40, really talk. Judd Apatow had a hand in both of these projects, and it put him on the map in a big way along with Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill.

Honorable Mentions: 

25th Hour (Spike Lee, 2002)

This movie should actually be in my top five. We'll just consider it a tie with #3 Children of Men for best dramatic film of the decade. It is masterful. The story of a drug dealer's last 24 hours before going to prison. It is at once the story of a man who wishes he'd done things differently, the story of a man's lifelong friendships, the story of a man and his father, and it is all set in front of the back drop of post - 9/11 New York City/America. If you are not in tears at the end, you have neither heart nor soul.


Avatar (James Cameron, 2009)

I just saw this masterpiece last night. It is THE most visually stunning thing I have ever seen. Most of it is CGI, but it is the best CGI ever used by anyone. James Cameron (behind the camera for the first time since Titanic) has retained his title as "King of the World" to paraphrase Roger Ebert. And I agree. This is certainly worthy of a best of the decade list for the sheer fact that there has never been a better marriage between allegory and special effects. Go see it! And read my full review above.

"Urban-Haute Bourgeoise": Conversations with Rich Teenagers in Manhattan

I just re-watched a movie tonight that I absolutely love. It takes place in a world that I know nothing about, yet it touches me to the extent that I am smiling right now. So, this is me adding one to my Christmas list for this year--the Criterion DVD of Whit Stillman's 1990 debut Metropolitan. If I don't get it as a gift, I believe I'll gift it to myself.

Most people I know have never even heard of this movie. However, it is generally regarded by critics as a good film with great dialogue. In his original review of Metropolitan, Roger Ebert wrote that Stillman, "has made a film Scott Fitzgerald might have been comfortable with, a film about people covering their own insecurities with a facade of social ease. And he has written wonderful dialogue, words in which the characters discuss ideas and feelings instead of simply marching through plot points..." That is so true. I like movies where the dialogue overrides the plot. Sometimes it is just more interesting to hear what people have to say than what crazy plot they're involved in. 

Stillman gives us, in Metropolitan, a group of young men and women embroiled in the Manhattan debutante season during Christmas break. The film opens with Tom Townsend (Edward Clements), a very serious young man, sharing a cab outside The Plaza with the late-teenaged spawn of the Upper East Side. Tom, you see, is a "West Sider" and not as wealthy as Nick (Chris Eigeman) and the others. They haven't seen him around at the "dances" this season, but they invite him to the after-party anyway. Tom pretends to be opposed to all this stuff, but comes to love it. Audrey Rouget gets a crush on him, but he's in love with the elusive Serena Slocumb, who is in love with the pony-tailed Rick Von Sloneker and so on and so on and "Cha-cha-cha." 

The young rich begin going to Sally Fowler's parents' penthouse, talking through the night about French socialist writers and the idea that "preppies" like themselves may be doomed to downward mobility. There is presented scene after scene of just simply talking. The comedy is in the dialogue. Very dry, straight-forward comedy. A comedy-of-manners. These young people are brutally honest. They have it all but must act like they don't want it. When the deb parties begin to slow down, the group starts to break up and go back to school or Paris or wherever. And you feel Tom Townsend's loneliness in the fact that this is the time in these people's lives when it is time to begin growing up. To begin the possible downward slide--the "failure." Or maybe not. There's still time. 

The great thing about Metropolitan, apart from the dialogue, and the reason I relate to it so much is that it is about the idealism you feel as someone in your late teens/early twenties. I grew up middle class in East Tennessee, but I've felt these feelings and had these conversations and confusions and desires. Maybe not in the same way but close.

Basterds: An Email to a Friend in Middle Tennessee

I went to see Inglourious Basterds on Sunday with Mayes and Morrow. So freakin' awesome! I was hooked from the first shot. I think it's about as perfect a movie as there can be, especially for a film lover. I think you're right about this movie being better than Kill Bill. The reason being that it is just plain more focused. Tarantino himself joked about the fact that he'd been working on this one for so long, then broke to do Kill Bill (which was "supposed to tame him"), and he ended up with a 4+ hour movie. Basterds is better because it isn't winking at the camera as much. It isn't as show-offy. It only shows off when it needs to and does it brilliantly. I will now list the top five things I loved the most:

1. The actor who played SS Col. Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz). This is probably the best performance of the year. He acted the pants off everyone else using four languages. 

2. The dialogue, in general, but in two scenes in particular: The opening scene in the French dairy farmer's house and the scene between the German-speaking Basterds, the actress, and the Nazi officer. I loved how Landa rationalized killing Jews to the farmer. He broke that poor guy down...pure evil. Tarantino's dialogue, which is always great, I think, reached a new plain in this movie. It flowed so well, and it was mostly translated to foreign languages. I have never had such a good time reading subtitles. And there is also the fact that so much emphasis is placed on language in this movie (something like five languages as well as countless types of accents and discussions of such).

3. Brad Pitt as really a minor character, who is from East Tennessee, and who is truly the comic relief. I did not expect this. Totally different than I thought it would be. I hope you laughed out loud as much as I did. He read his lines to perfection, just like Waltz. 

4. The wink-at-the-audience, show-off moments: Burning down the Nazis with 35 MM film and the final shot and line of dialogue.

5. The violence: baseball bats, hand down the throat, guns pointed at testicles, fingers in wounds, taking of scalps. The scene in the bar with the German actress and the Nazis was probably one of the best scenes of violence ever put on film. It was so well executed, I need to see it again to make sure. 

I just love how Tarantino throws everything out there. It's a TARANTINO MOVIE with a movie within the movie that skewers plenty of movies I'll never see while reinventing WWII and the WWII movie with a touch of East Tennessee channeling Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian in French, German, English, and Italian.          

My Beginning the End

"The Sopranos" truly is the most ground-breaking television series ever made. Sure, I like "Lost" better, and "Six Feet Under" is a better HBO series even. But as far as creativity and just plain great film-making goes, "The Sopranos" takes the cake. And also...Jamie-Lynn Sigler is freakin' hot! 


I've taken another long break from my movie watching to devour "The Sopranos" on DVD. My friend and soon-to-be former co-worker, Ben, has this ridiculous deluxe box-set of the complete series. I can't get enough. My only worry is that I won't be able to polish this thing off by the end of the week. I'm moving back to East Tennessee just in time for football season, and I can't take this set with me. I'd hate to have to go more than a day without my fix.  


"The Sopranos" is, I've come to understand recently, an American tragedy of beautifully epic proportions. Tony Soprano's life is hard, and, despite the fact that he is most definitely a sociopath, we still root for him to succeed and to live. I don't think there has ever been a more flawed television hero, which is the greatness of this show. He would tell you that he just wants to provide his family with a life of comfort and security. And, like many men, his "work" hands him a level of stress that is hard to handle. Then you have to throw in the fact that his business is entirely illegal and involves murder most regularly. The mafia in pop culture as always been a fascination. And then David Chase hurled a curve-ball that made it seem real, here and now. And James Gandolfini knocked it out of the park.


The sixth and final season of this mob-boss of all things television starts of the with a Bada-Bing of a bang. I'm sure you've all seen it but it is surely new to me. Anyhow, season six starts off with this thing called "Seven Souls" by a group called Material. It is basically just William S. Burroughs reading overtop of this light funk beat. This is a small portion of that reading: 

The ancient Egyptians postulated Seven Souls. Top soul, and the first to leave at the moment of death, is Ren, the Secret Name. This corresponds to my Director. He directs the film of your life from conception to death. The Secret Name is the title of your film. When you die, that's where Ren came in. Second soul, and second one off the sinking ship, is Sekem: Energy, Power, Light. The Director gives the orders, Sekem presses the right buttons. Number three is Khu, the Guardian Angel. He, she, or it is third man out . . .


Number four is Ba, the heart, often treacherous. Number five is Ka, the Double...The Ka, which usually reaches adolescence at the time of bodily death, is the only reliable guide through the Land of the Dead... Number six is Khaibit, the Shadow, Memory, your whole past conditioning from this and other lives. Number seven is Sekhu, the Remains.   


This is heard as we see a montage of the characters (including Meadow herself dancing around in her underwear for her fiance) living life, while Mr. Burroughs is reading about the ancient Egyptian thoughts on death. Upon looking at what this says, I came to understand how perfectly it fits into the brilliance of the creative brains behind this series. People die on "The Sopranos"...all the time. Their lives and deaths are controlled, or "directed" in miniature "films" about the "life" of Don Tony Soprano and his family, friends, and fogies. We see here at the "conception" of the final season that "death" is looming. Since I know how "The Sopranos" ends, it is easy for me to understand, after seeing this particular episode for the first time, just how clever Mr. David Chase and his team of writers were with this show. And that famous last scene and abrupt ending that I know is coming begins to make perfect sense with each episode I watch. A work of fiction can be much like life because its "directors" (gods) are "pressing the right buttons." Worlds are created for our amusement, and they end with a cut to black.

Watch the scene here:

Funny People, Enough Said

I believe that Judd Apatow is capable of great things. He could make one of the best movies ever someday. His latest movie, Funny People, just misses greatness. However, it is one of the best comedies about comedy there has ever been.

Adam Sandler, doing the best acting he's ever done, plays George Simmons, a very rich and famous comedian and movie star. He is also very lonely and is only made more when he finds out he has a terminal illness. The opening scenes of this movie are filmed beautifully. Apatow you can see, with camera great Janusz Kaminski as DP, is starting to gain a little style with this film. I was drawn in immediately to this story and very touched after the first five minutes.

The movie continues its greatness upon introducing Ira Wright (Seth Rogen), an upstart stand-up comedian. He and his roommates (Jason Schwartzman and Jonah Hill) all work in comedy and are all working on finding that big break. Ira meets George Simmons, who kinda likes his stuff. He takes the younger under his wing as a writer and assistant. And then George and Ira are friends, headliner and opening act. Apart from their age, the two new friends are different. George is selfish, never in love, insensitive, uses his fame to sleep around. Ira is a guy like me and like Judd Apatow (I recently heard him in a Fresh Air interview). He is sensitive and shy around girls. He is afraid to even talk to the cute girl comedian (Aubrey Plaza) from across the street that he likes. Just as he is afraid to try any moves on this groupie George brings home for him after a gig. The differences between these two comics, especially with the ways of women, are at the center of this film and are the greatness of it along with the funniest stand-up comedy bits I've ever heard.

Funny People falters, though, in its third act. George and Ira pay a visit to an old friend from George's past, and, while still a little funny and incredibly meaningful, the plot just slows down way too much. I think Apatow was trying to create a sort-of uncomfortable feeling in both the main characters and the audience, which sort of works and for which I applaud his originality. But, in the end, at nearly two-and-a-half hours, the movie plays just a little too long.

You should decide for yourself though. Don't let the running time deter you. This movie is as funny as the title suggests, is often beautifully touching, and has a heavy load of comedic greatness, and I'm sure I will watch it again and again. In fact, the first ninety minutes is the best movie I've seen this year. Adam Sandler is at the top of his game as an actor in this one, and Seth Rogen and the discussion of Wilco and the struggles he has with this girl immediately connected with me. I've felt this way before. You'll know what I mean. Even though it didn't quite go the distance for me in the end, I can't wait to see what Judd Apatow does next.

***1/2 out of ****

Tom Cruise: A Great Actor No Matter What They Say

Time Magazine came out with a top-ten list of Tommy's best roles in commemoration of his 25 years of super-stardom. I'm gonna give you my own list. A list of great roles from one of my favorite actors. Here is Time's list:

25 Years of Tom Cruise

Risky Businuess, 1983

Top Gun, 1986

Rain Man, 1988

Born on the Fourth of July, 1989

A Few Good Men, 1992

Mission: Impossible, 1996

Jerry Maguire, 1996

Magnolia, 1999

War of the Worlds, 2005

Tropic Thunder, 2008

I'll start by deconstructing this list, which I don't care for too much. However, my list will certainly overlap somewhat. War of the Worlds, while decent, does not give us Cruise's skill. Tropic Thunder featured a different and unexpected Cruise but is not worthy of a list. It's a cameo. I realize that the people from Time were going chronologically, but I don't like that. I'm going by rank of ten best roles...my opinion-style.

First, Tom Cruise has only made one bad movie in my opinion...Cocktail. I just never got into that one. It's too silly-80s for my taste and only highlights his good looks and swagger, which was displayed in a far-better silly-80s blockbuster known as Top Gun. I am lucky enough to have recently re-watched this 1986 Tony Scott extravaganza and, man, does it hold up. It is a blast to watch and is definitely the movie that pushed Cruise into major Hollywood player stature.

Then the man went on to become a real actor. He showed us in Rainman that he could act with the likes of Dustin Hoffman in a great brotherly road movie. He played the paralyzed real-life Vietnam Vet Ron Kovic in Oliver Stone's incredibly dramatic Born on the Fourth of July. And he made these two movies within a two-year span and earned his first Oscar Nomination for the latter and should have won. He has continued to prove his skills on through the 90s and 2000s working with actors like Jack Nicholson in Rob Reiner's A Few Good Men and with directors like Cameron Crowe (Jerry Maguire, Vanilla Sky), Ron Howard (Far and Away), Michael Mann (Collateral), Paul Thomas Anderson (Magnolia), and The Stanley Kubrick (Eyes Wide Shut). Say what you will about his utterly stupid Personal Life, but the man can act and he can entertain and he will continue to do so for a long time.

My number one choice for the best Tom Cruise role is to be awarded to Paul Thomas Anderson's 1999 masterpiece Magnolia for which he received his third Oscar Nomination. He plays Frank "T.J" Mackey, the estranged son of a wealthy television executive (Jason Robards), who makes a living as a sleazy motivational speaker and creator of "Seduce and Destroy," a program that produces a step-by-step plan showing men how to get women into bed. He plays it with great seriousness and hilarious profanity. And he steals the show from the incredible ensemble cast including John C. Reilly, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, William H. Macy, Julianne Moore, and the late-great Jason Robards. He lays it all on the line in this one and is, at once, the comic-relief and the best dramatic performance during the raining of frogs that is the end of this great film.

Here is my Tom Cruise top ten:

1. Magnolia (Paul Thomas Anderson, 1999)

In which he sleazily makes you cry.

2. Vanilla Sky (Cameron Crowe, 2001)

In which he is as confused as you.

3. Born on the Fourth of July (Oliver Stone, 1989)

In which he's not just a pretty face.

4. A Few Good Men (Rob Reiner, 1992)

In which he shows Jack he "can handle the truth."

5. Collateral (Michael Mann, 2004)

In which he is truly a villain.

6. Jerry Maguire (Cameron Crowe, 1996)

In which he is down-trodden, "shows you the money," and "completes you."

7. Risky Business (Paul Brickman, 1983)

In which he falls for a hooker and realizes the sometimes you just have to say, "what the fuck."

8. Rainman (Barry Levinson, 1988)

In which he finds out he has an older brother and becomes all the better for it.

9. Minority Report (Steven Spielberg, 2002)

In which he does some action again...Spielberg-style.

10. Top Gun (Tony Scott, 1986)

In which he sings, "You never close your eyes anymore when I kiss your li-i-ips..."