Tom Cruise was “at his best, and most unlikable, as the misogynistic self-help guru Frank T.J. Mackey in Paul Thomas Anderson‘s Magnolia,” writes MSNBC’s Eric Lundegaard. “Here’s the fascinating part. As he was being interviewed by the female reporter, and glared at her warily through a big tight grin, the character seemed only a step or two removed from the Cruise character we see promoting his latest film on entertainment shows. That is: spooky.” I alluded to the same thing when I wrote on 4.19 about Cruise’s Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible III, to wit: “He’s made Hunt into a kind of mirror image of hard-core tabloid Tom. Hunt is a ‘character,’ yes, but based more than ever on the pumping piston rods of Cruise’s personality. A guy who’s all about focus, juice, intensity, endorphins. Plotting strategy, eyeballing his costars, running for his life (in more ways than one) and turning tomato red in the face. Neck veins! Neck veins!”