daily stream: is this Tom Cruise's best performance ever?
2004’s *Collateral* expires from UK Netflix on Jan 31st; also available on lots of other services on both sides of the Atlantic
I kinda can’t believe we’re talking about a possible Oscar nomination for Tom Cruise in Top Gun: Maverick: he pretty much just plays himself again in that one. One movie in which he definitely does not play himself — it’s one of my favorite performances of his — is 2004’s Collateral. As a stone-cold hired killer, he is thoroughly chilling, utterly convincing as a psychopath. From my 2004 review of the film:
Cruise has never been better. He’s stiller than he’s ever been, finding an intensity in an amorality he’s never accepted before in his characters, like he’s never really been willing to take an actual risk with a character before.… [H]e asks for no sympathy for Vincent, doesn’t expect it, and in one meta-moment laughs derisively at the whole concept. Maybe that means he’s going to embrace something more dangerous and far more interesting in the future.
Alas, I don’t think Cruise has gotten anywhere near this dangerous since. He didn’t get an Oscar nomination for Collateral, either, but he certainly would have deserved it if he had. (His costar, Jamie Foxx, did get a Best Supporting Actor nod, however.)
US: streaming on Paramount+ (via Prime); rent/buy on Prime and Apple TV
UK: streaming on Netflix (expires Jan 31st); also streaming on Paramount+ (via Prime); rent/buy on Prime and Apple TV
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That move is the best and agree it's one of his best. That and Tropic Thunder!