Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer both Deserve Oscars for “Maverick”

This is not about Top Gun Maverick the movie. This is about the two actors you see here. Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer.

Maverick is a great movie, better than the original, and better than anything I’ve see this year so far.

These two men are at the heart of the movie. Not just their characters, but the men in real life.

In 1989 Tom Cruise starred in “Born on the Fourth of July” and gave what I think is the best performance of that year, and maybe of the decade. He didn’t win.

Four years later in 1993, Val Kilmer co-starred in “Tombstone” and gave one of the best performance of all time as a dying Doc Holiday. It is legend now and some (me included) can quote almost every line of his dialogue. Val was not even nominated that year.

Neither man has won an Oscar but in “Maverick” each of them deserves to win.

Cruise holds together a move made 36 years ago and you can see every cell of his maturity in the character. Val Kilmer appears in just one scene, but his performance, courage and depth of character in doing it, is the essence of what actors do. (BTW “Network” star Beatrice Straight holds the record. She won her Oscar with just five minutes and 40 seconds of time of screen time”)

They are both owed and I don’t give a damn about “the process” or what anyone thinks is fair. After that fiasco last year, the Academy Awards needs a booster shot and this is it.

Cruise/Kilmer 2023.