Risky Business (1983)

In a film that drips with an easy going style and scathing social commentary, Tom Cruise shines in an early performance that signposts his future as a bona-fide star. Paul Brickman’s Risky Business is a cautionary tale of youth and capitalism in which a young man makes a number of mistakes in quick succession, setting him up to either learn valuable lessons or to crumble in the ruins of his own potential. With a hit factory soundtrack, synth heavy score and a script that resonates as intelligent and fast paced, Brickman’s debut as a writer-director is an enjoyable romp of teenage thrills and excess.

Joel is a high school senior left home alone for a week in his safe and suburban Illinois home. Encouraged by his friends to make the most of his parent’s absence, he invites Lana, a call girl, over one night and goes on to deal with the myriad of problems that her entry into his world causes. Over the course of a week, he is forced to contend with the follies of his own irresponsibility, Lana’s dangerous pimp and, to cap it all off, his prospects for admission to the Ivy League college of his father’s dreams.

Cruise and Rebecca De Mornay in the leads are each impeccable as teenagers who find themselves out of their depth in very different walks of life. Joel’s fortunes go from up to down and back again so many times that Tom Cruise has to measure the height of each high and low, succeeding in making the character a wily mix of inexperience and stupidity. His performance also encapsulates a clever turn as an opportunist, which bolsters Brickman’s theme of capitalist ingenuity in the face of mounting adversity. De Mornay inhabits Lana as a girl wise beyond her years, but only ever one step away from a tragic outcome. Her maturely calculated performance and chemistry with Cruise make their encounters bubble with a believable tension and playfulness. Curtis Armstrong and Joe Pantoliano also deliver astoundingly well in roles that provide comedy and a sense of danger, respectively.

The cinematography by Bruce Surtees and Reynaldo Villalobos is fittingly seductive. Tracking shots invite the audience into the tangled web of Joel’s blunders, while stationary set ups deliver laughs at various points when either circumstance or tone warrant their inclusion. The electronic score by pop group Tangerine Dream is a subtle, though at times indulgent slip into the murky world of false security in suburbia.

Risky Business is a film that occasionally verges on the absurd, but manages always to maintain itself with a polished script and a number of winks to the audience. It’s this latter element which makes it such a clever and fun film to watch. It also makes a rather profound point and satire out of the subject of the capitalist enterprise, without subjecting it’s likeable characters to an uncompromisingly pessimistic end. By turns hilarious, thrilling and erotic, Brickman’s ode to teenage hubris is a fulfilling and commendable film.

5/5