Vanilla Sky
REVIEW
I am sure the question on your mind is “Why is Vanilla Sky my favorite movie of all time?” On Rotten Tomatoes this movie currently holds a of score of 42% from critics and a 72% from audiences. Clearly this movie is not universally loved or respected. So, why do I love it more than any other movie ever made? There is not a simple answer just a very personal one.
WARNING: Please watch this movie before you read the rest of this review. There are quit a few spoilers.
There are a lot of movies I love…movies for different seasons, different emotions, different social environments and I have a favorite for all of those occasions. “Vanilla Sky” holds the position of my “All Time Favorite” because it is the movie that showed me something about myself…something that I had never been shown before but I found a lot of comfort in.
I have to admit that the first time I saw this movie I left the theater very disappointed. It was not what I was expecting it to be at all. I didn’t understand it and didn't appreciate it. I thought it would be something like most everything else I had seen but… it wasn’t... so I rejected it. Like most things, we as humans like what we are comfortable with and when something is new and challenging, we dismiss it and get back to comfort. Some movies need more than one viewing to really let its ideas and questions sink in.
Years later...I watched it again. I am not sure why I watched it again but for whatever reason I was drawn back to it. This time I watched it for what it was and not what I expected it to be and this is when it hit me like a ton of bricks. I saw what this movie was asking and upon future viewings I began to fall deeper and deeper into the dialogue, imagery, music and ideas. It developed with me like any good relationship, slowly and over time. It challenged me and made me realize things about myself, like no movie ever has. This movie actually showed me the reason I love movies and the way they have affected every aspect of my life.
I am the director of my own life. I pick the music I listen to as I drive in my car to set the mood I want to be in. I planned dates with past girlfriends based on locations I think are the perfect setting I wanted to achieve. I choose the characters I hold close and become apart of my story in the everyday fabric of my life. I choose the books I want to read to develop my mind. I am a beacon for information. I take it in from every direction: ads I see, songs I hear, news I read, movies and shows I watch. It is all processed and filtered threw my eyes. I create the world around me based on the things I am attracted to.
In my own life I create situations and scenarios based on the pop culture I surround myself with. I am constantly building my dream life through the images and sounds I hold close. I saw what I thought love should be like when I saw Jack and Rose fall for each other while watching “Titanic” and the ultimate sacrifice Jack makes for that love. I saw what friendship should be like as I watched four boys go on an adventure to find a dead body in “Stand By Me.”
Real life is never as satisfying as what I see in the movies. I am able to create brief moments that feel perfect but I am not able to edit my life and the slow boring parts are a majority of the human experience. Life is the ants at the picnic, the sunburn at the beach or blown tire on the way to the event. In the final scene of “Vanilla Sky,” where David Ames (Tom Cruise) is faced with the choice, does he continue to live in a dream world or does he want to live a real life. He chooses a real life. In a weird way that is kind of a crazy choice. We are all trying to live these dream lives of a perfect existence filled friends, family, love, adventure, wealth, respect and joy. In a perfect setting with perfect weather for every occasion. The thing is we only get one reality. We only get one truth. One shot at our lives.
So I began to rethink my own reality. I still take the pop culture I see and infuse it into my everyday life. Scenarios that I have seen in movies manifest themselves into my life. The scenes are never perfect and never go exactly how I imagine but they are the real life version of that perfect scene. Just the fact that a movie like “Vanilla Sky” exists, I know I am not alone in these ideas. There is a reason Cameron Crowe was attracted to this movie and the ideas it is getting across because he understands the power of pop culture and the influence it has over people.
The reason I love the movies so much is because they are my mentors. There is always a story that has helped me through a situation in life or gave me an answer I was looking for. It is the art from that shows the scenario of an emotion that I have either been in, going through or see a future that I either want or want to avoid. They create empathy in me for other experiences that I will never experience. I can use movies as examples when I am trying to describe a feeling or a situation that I am not sure the best way to communicate. Like when a friend of mine goes through a hard breakup and they are suffering and I don’t know the exact words to comfort them. We can sit and watch “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and I know that movie will get across everything I think they need to know in a way no words of mine can express.
I have a movie for almost every scenario in life I have ever been through and sometimes as I am going through. I can recall a movie that has already showed me the emotion I am about to enter and then I wonder am I playing this situation out in a certain way because I have seen it in the movies or is the movie just an accurate depiction of a relatable situation. It is like John Cusack says in “High Fidelity” “what came first the music or the misery… did I listen to pop music because I was miserable or was I miserable because I listened to pop music?” Vanilla sky was the first movie that opened my eyes to the fact that pop art I internalize and am attracted to becomes the life I create for myself.
When Tom Cruise jumps from the skyscraper in the final scene of the film and his life flashes before his eyes, we see everything he has internalized and been influenced by. Imagine for a moment your last breathe and your life flashing before your eyes. What do you see? What are you influences? Think about everything that has brought you to this exact moment and what has created the person that you are right now. This is ultimately the reason I love “Vanilla Sky.” When I watch it I am reminded how I am creating the life I live each and everyday. The pop culture and influences I am collecting are evolving into the life that I am actually living. It is an amazing thought.
Another reason I love this movie so much is Cameron Crowe. Crowe who wrote and directed this movie started out as a rock journalist for Creem, Circus and Rolling Stone Magazine ( which was documented in his film “Almost Famous”). “Vanilla Sky” was adapted from the Spanish film “Obre Los Ojos” but Crowe took it and added his signature style. He took the pop culture and music he loves and soaked this film in it. Crowe’s knowledge and love of Rock music elevated every scene in this movie. He made such bold and unique choices that the songs he chose to use made me see them in a completely different light. For me, the best example is the scene in which Tom Cruise is having his breakthrough and about to get the answers he is searching for. It is one of the greatest scenes I have seen in cinema. Crowe choose to use Beach Boys “Good Vibrations” to add to the unease, panic and rising tension of the scene and the choice was brilliant. He reimagined how that song could be used and he made that scene iconic with his brilliant understanding of Rock music.
When watching the final scene of Vanilla Sky, as we see David Ames descend upon the New York streets from the tower above, I get the sense that we are watching pieces of Crowe’s montage of life. We are lucky to have Crowe as a part of our pop culture and I look forward to seeing any thing he puts out in the years to come. I want to thank him for this movie as well as “Say Anything, Singles, Jerry Maguire, Almost Famous, Elizabethtown, We Bought a Zoo, Aloha and Roadies.” His work has been an inspiration to me and set me on my current path. My love for pop culture and especially the movies led me to the creation of this site: a place where I can talk about the movies I internalize and obsess over with every repeated viewing and it is movies from artist like him that I look forward to the most.
