SHERDOG MOVIE CLUB: Week 257 - Vanilla Sky (2001)

[Zer]

I wasn't into this for the most part. I haven't seen any other Cameron Crowe movies but his style here was pretty obnoxious I thought. As I watched it kind of felt like he was lurking over my shoulder and whispering things in my ear like 'Man, Radiohead are the shit, right?' or 'hey did you see my Jules et Jim and À bout de souffle posters on the wall just now?'

I can appreciate an auteur where every film is a window into his soul but with Crowe it's like 'back off dude I'm not liking your Spotify playlist'. That's always going to limit the movie but I did like the performances. I'm a big fan of Cruise. His bromance with Jason Lee is probably the weakest thing in the movie in terms of acting. I didn't feel the chemistry and Cruise was struggling with that chummy dialogue, which sounded to me like one long Kevin Smith reference from Crowe. But I like the more theatrical side of Cruise's performance with his mangled face and all the mental anguish he gets to show. Cruise pulled me into the film and I did end up empathizing with the character, the ending hits me in the feels. The whole idea of finding out people you loved didn't really exist or were imagined really fucks with me, I remember the ending of A Scanner Darkly where it happens to Keanu and it fucken wrecked me.

To me it was 6/10 but in a weird way my interest sort of clicked into place at the ending, so it's a film I may have to revisit. It definitely has the potential to be more of an emotional gutpunch than it was, I just need to get over the Cameron Crowe thing because that guy was distracting presence throughout the whole movie to me

 

[John Mabrey]

i feel like if you didnt see it back in the day, you prolly wont like it for some reason. i watched it again like last year and still liked it tho

 

[HARRISON_3]

But man I couldn't even get into the whole open-ended ending that this movie had. Was it all reality, or a simulation, especially with that last phrase of: "Open your eyes". It just felt muddled to me. And that's partly because I just never thought the mindfuck theme actually gained any momentum underneath all that glitz.

It was both.

**spoilers below**

The great life he had with Sophia was part of his lucid dream, so that part was simulation.

Everything before that (including the accident, and him killing himself) was real.

I guess the future technology (and I guess also part of L.E.) was being cryogenically frozen with the option to unfreeze at a later date.

So he decides to wake up from his deep freeze and live out the rest of his life in reality and no longer in the lucid dream/simulation/great life with Sophia.

As tech support tells him, things are much different in the future and his finances won't last long, but Cruise decides he wants to live an actual real life from now on.

Also with future technology, his face and other injuries can be fixed, so there's that, too.

 

[MusterX]

LMAO at 1:17, "I swallowed your cum, that means something."

 

[MusterX]

But man I couldn't even get into the whole open-ended ending that this movie had. Was it all reality, or a simulation, especially with that last phrase of: "Open your eyes". It just felt muddled to me. And that's partly because I just never thought the mindfuck theme actually gained any momentum underneath all that glitz.

Maybe its because you already knew what was going to happen? First time I saw the film I definitely remember being blown away by the mind fuck aspect of the film. Maybe it just doesn't age well, like when you know the secret it just ruins it for future viewings.

 

[MusterX]

The great life he had with Sophia was part of his lucid dream, so that part was simulation.

It almost reminded me of Jacob's Ladder in that aspect. Jacob had two different lives with two different women and it wasn't entirely clear which was real, or if both were real, or if neither were real.

 

[John Mabrey]

LMAO at 1:17, "I swallowed your cum, that means something."

<Lmaoo>

 

[John Mabrey]

It was both.

**spoilers below**

The great life he had with Sophia was part of his lucid dream, so that part was simulation.

Everything before that (including the accident, and him killing himself) was real.

I guess the future technology (and I guess also part of L.E.) was being cryogenically frozen with the option to unfreeze at a later date.

So he decides to wake up from his deep freeze and live out the rest of his life in reality and no longer in the lucid dream/simulation/great life with Sophia.

As tech support tells him, things are much different in the future and his finances won't last long, but Cruise decides he wants to live an actual real life from now on.

Also with future technology, his face and other injuries can be fixed, so there's that, too.

He basically went with the red pill

 

[John Mabrey]

I forgot why Kurt Russell kept telling him it was real and not to jump lol. Then the other guy was like what are your kids names , that was lol

 

[europe1]

I haven't seen any other Cameron Crowe movies but his style here was pretty obnoxious I thought. As I watched it kind of felt like he was lurking over my shoulder and whispering things in my ear like 'Man, Radiohead are the shit, right?

lamo. This paragraph is better than anything I could write. 10/10.

But this was part of the problem I was harping about. They want to make you believe that this movie is about some deep personal/emotional trauma -- when all you get is the impression that the director really likes stuff like Radiohead. There is a disconnect from the tragedy in there, somewhere.

i feel like if you didnt see it back in the day, you prolly wont like it for some reason. i watched it again like last year and still liked it tho

This whole "twist-ending" thing did seem pretty popular in the late 90's. The Sixth Sense going mega-big was also something that happened around this time.

Maybe its because you already knew what was going to happen? First time I saw the film I definitely remember being blown away by the mind fuck aspect of the film. Maybe it just doesn't age well, like when you know the secret it just ruins it for future viewings.

No I hadn't seen the movie before (or the original). Though I did know by reputation that there was some mindfuckery going on in it (and as soon as you see that mask on Cruise's face you kind of know something fishy is going on).

It's more that... twist-endings require you to care about the rest of the film beforehand. By the time that stuff showed up, I mostly just shrugged my shoulder at it.

It almost reminded me of Jacob's Ladder in that aspect. Jacob had two different lives with two different women and it wasn't entirely clear which was real, or if both were real, or if neither were real.

Didn't it turn out in Jacob's Ladder that.... it was all a dream? Like, he was a Vietnam soldier dying in the field-hospital and the entire movie was his vision of hell and damnation and such?

In my opinion, Jacob's Ladder is kind of the opposite of this movie. Where everything up to the ending was really interesting but then they pull that "it was all a dream" trope on you which is kind of unsatisfying. Though in Jacob's Ladder the dream at least had some relation to the rest of the film which is better than other's who do it.

 

[MusterX]

Didn't it turn out in Jacob's Ladder that.... it was all a dream? Like, he was a Vietnam soldier dying in the field-hospital and the entire movie was his vision of hell and damnation and such?

In my opinion, Jacob's Ladder is kind of the opposite of this movie. Where everything up to the ending was really interesting but then they pull that "it was all a dream" trope on you which is kind of unsatisfying. Though in Jacob's Ladder the dream at least had some relation to the rest of the film which is better than other's who do it.

Well, my point was that it reminded me of Jacob's Ladder because he had both real and imagined lives, not that the films were similar. I think I also have to point out the pretty cool symbolism and meaning of the real Jacob's Ladder because Jacob saw it in a dream, after a fight, like Jacob in the movie had these visions of his life, and ultimately ascended the ladder, or the staircase, at the end of the film. The entire point of Jacob's Ladder was it was a ladder to heaven that was presented during a dream.

Jacob's Ladder (Hebrew: סֻלָּם יַעֲקֹב‎ Sūllām Ya‘aqōv) is a ladder leading to heaven that was featured in a dream the biblical Patriarch Jacob had during his flight from his brother Esau in the Book of Genesis (chapter 28). The significance of the dream has been debated, but most interpretations agree that it identified Jacob with the obligations and inheritance of the people chosen by God

 

[HARRISON_3]

LMAO at 1:17, "I swallowed your cum, that means something."

I always liked Penelope Cruz's line, "Pleasure delayer..." line for some reason.

 

[Stalkingsquid]

First time I watched this movie I thought it was a females Total Recall and gave it a 6.5/10.

Rewatched it tonight and I greatly enjoyed it.
Easy 9/10. Gets corny at times and earlier posters concerns are valid.

The whole "in another life things were perfect" and "another time another place" keep me up at night. I haven't seen the original but I'm sure i will eventually.