December means one thing: Happy Cruisemas, from our home to yours. This month we welcome back special Cruise correspondent and BWDR torchbearer Elizabeth Cantwell to discuss Cameron Crowe’s 2001 Vanilla Sky. Surrealist rom com or indulgent puzzle film? Flop or parable? We get into needle drops, Crowe’s self-referentiality, whether Cruise is always more or less wearing a mask, is Brian real, what got lost in translation (from Alejandro Amenábar’s Abre los ojos), the Citizen Kane of it all, are rich people likable, Cameron Diaz’s tour de force, and more.

For further reading, check out Ethan Warren on Vanilla Sky back in 2020 for BW/DR, and Robin Bell at Den of Geek. The Bright Wall/Dark Room Podcast is co-hosted by Veronica Fitzpatrick and Chad Perman and produced and edited by Eli Sands. Our theme music is composed by Chad.

Find all 100+ issues of Bright Wall/Dark Room, including December’s ode to romantic comedies of which this may or may not be one, at brightwalldarkroom.com. Please subscribe, rate, and honor us with a review. We’re on Twitter @BWDR and @TheBWDRPodcast, and you’re welcome to show support via our Patreon. We welcome listener feedback and sponsorship inquiries at [email protected]. And thanks for spending the year with us.