Because this year is seemingly an unending trip through some bizzaro alternate reality, movie stars are now making their own little movies of them going to watch other movies to celebrate returning to the movie theatre. I know, it seems like some weird mirage of a forgotten time – only some of us have been allowed back to cinemas in the last couple of months. But never fear, Tom Cruise has taken us with him for his experience of going back to the movies, so we may all live vicariously through him.
Yeah, this is the world we live in now. Didn’t have this one on my 2020 Bingo sheet, that’s for sure.
Almost like that one-second-every-day challenge that I’ve all but given up on this year (how often can I film myself sitting on the couch watching Netflix?) Tom Cruise likely directed, shot, produced, and starred in his own short film about…going to watch a film. It’s meta, baby. That’s where we’re at.
In a straight-to-socials production, Cruise plays the role of an excited man in Big Movie. Big Screen. Loved it. who is returning to his homeland (the movies) like the prodigal son returning to the safety of his parental home. It’s established that we’re in a dreary, wet city, juxtaposed by the joyous exuberance of Cruise and his jubilance of being able to sit in a cosy theatre to be wowed by the big moving pictures on the screen in front of him.
Big Movie. Big Screen. Loved it. pic.twitter.com/DrAY5tRg5P
— Tom Cruise (@TomCruise) August 25, 2020
Wearing a mask – a clear nod to the new normal of the modern-day world, or perhaps a metaphor for…something…who knows – Cruise arrives at the theatre to show he’s going to see Tenet, the latest offering from Christopher Nolan that nobody was quite sure would ever actually be shown.
Cruise’s excitement, either acting or legitimate, is palpable as he breaks the fourth wall (!!) and declares, “back to the movies”. An incredible choice of dialogue here, which will surely have him in consideration for some awards.
Sitting in a reasonably-populated theatre, which at this point could result in this short film being classified as a horror, Cruise applauds emphatically as the movie (Tenet) begins. Short snippets of Cruise throughout the screening shows him absolutely enthralled in the storyline, leaning forward in his seat, unblinking, potentially allowing his façade of Being Human™ slip momentarily. A plot tease for a sequel lying in this short moment, perhaps?
Applauding again at the end of the movie, Tom Cruise stands and declares to the packed theatre “welcome back to the movie theatre, everybody”, just to really drive home the point of the whole exercise, in case others (who are not as well-versed in The Movies as Cruise is) were not aware of what had happened for the last three hours of their lives.
In his final performance of Big Screen. Big Movie. Loved it., Tom Cruise assures us, his beloved audience beyond the audience, that he loved the movie, as he loves all movies. He loves to watch the movies, he loves to star in the movies, he loves to make movies about him making and watching movies. That’s him, Tom Cruise: Movie Man.
A fine performance, we give it 3.5 stars, Margaret.
