Tom Cruise-a-Palooza

26 snips

Oct 1, 2026

Tyler Foggatt, a senior editor at The New Yorker and devoted Tom Cruise admirer, charts the actor’s journey from heartthrob to prestige performer and stunt-driven action icon. The conversation explores Cruise’s magnetic screen persona, Scientology controversy, Oscar ambitions, and recurring savior roles. They also examine Digger, his daring turn as an aging oil tycoon, and whether he remains Hollywood’s last true movie star.

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ANECDOTE

When Tom Cruise Became Santa Claus

Tyler Foggatt’s first remembered Cruise film was Mission Impossible II, which she watched with her father as a child.
She eventually discovered that Cruise really performed the seemingly impossible stunts she had assumed were special effects.

INSIGHT

Cruise Makes Cockiness Weirdly Lovable

Cruise’s early appeal came from combining cocky masculine energy with vulnerability, chastening, and genuine acting ability.
His charisma often makes abrasive characters lovable rather than merely obnoxious.

INSIGHT

Why Jerry Maguire Should Not Work

Jerry Maguire succeeds because Cruise makes implausibly sentimental material feel emotionally credible.
His comic physicality and explosive frustration show how often his dramatic reputation overlooks his humor.

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Tom Cruise is often said to be the last of a dwindling breed: the true movie star. On this episode of Critics at Large, Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz consider the performances that have earned him that designation. The hosts are joined by Tyler Foggatt, a senior editor at The New Yorker and a die-hard “Cruise-head,” who breaks down the chapters of the actor’s career. The early “heartthrob years,” marked by films like “Risky Business” and “The Color of Money,” established Cruise’s appeal onscreen and catapulted him into projects with respected directors such as Stanley Kubrick and Paul Thomas Anderson. Cruise’s affiliation with the Church of Scientology might have torpedoed the career of a different celebrity, but he remains irresistible to audiences, who have shown up at the box office throughout the past decade of his career—which has largely been defined by action flicks and jaw-dropping stuntwork. In “Digger,” the polarizing new film directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, Cruise’s performance as a potbellied, aging oil baron is a rare departure from his usual fare. Might it signal another reinvention? “Cruise will probably default back to the formula that he knows works,” Foggatt says. “But maybe we'll get a couple ‘Digger’s between now and then.”

Read, watch, and listen with the critics:

“Digger” (2026)

“Risky Business” (1983)

“The Color of Money” (1986)

“Cocktail” (1988)

“Jerry Maguire” (1996)

“Born on the Fourth of July” (1989)

“Magnolia” (1999)

“Valkyrie” (2008)

The “Mission: Impossible” movies (1999-)

“War of the Worlds” (2005)

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Critics at Large is a weekly discussion from The New Yorker that explores the latest trends in books, television, film, and more. Join us every Thursday as we make unexpected connections between classic texts and pop culture.

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