Rebecca (1940)

When I first heard that Tom Cruise was gunning for an Oscar, I had a sneaking suspicion that I would hate whatever vehicle would serve that purpose. I subsequently witnessed ten million trailers for his new film Digger, and each time I saw one, I would hate what I saw even more than the last time. Then early reviews came out, seemingly confirming my suspicions that this was going to be horrendous. Finally, I went to see the movie, and for the first thirty minutes or so, my thought was “this is Minions for people who eat at Michelin Star restaurants.”

Then, all of a sudden, something happened. There was a bit of a plot twist to cap off the first act of the film. Without giving anything away, the reveal involved a miniature tree falling over. That was when I realized that something else was going on here. I sat through the rest of the film, and as it turns out, Digger is a layered, thoughtful film, even if it is quite loud.