Risky Business

RISKY BUSINESS is the smart and sexy 1983 teen comedy that brought intelligence to the genre and made a bonafide movie star out of Tom Cruise. Cruise is utterly winning as Joel Goodson, a high school senior excited about the prospect of having the house to himself when his parents go out of town for a few days; but things go from bad to worse when Joel crosses paths with a nubile prostitute (Rebecca DeMornay). This surprise hit brought an element of sophistication that was absent from a lot of the teen comedies that were populating the screen in the 1980's. This movie boasts a smart screenplay, imaginative direction, a memorable musical score, and on-target performances from Cruise, DeMornay, Curtis Armstrong, Joe Pantoliano (memorable as a slimy pimp), Bronson Pinchot, and Janet Carroll. Tom's sexy underwear dance to "Old Time Rock and Roll" has become Hollywood folklore. An instant classic upon release that still holds up over 20 years later.

Risky Business is the Quintessential Coming of Age Movies of the 1980's. Tom Cruise in his first memorable leading role, as an upper middle class high school student whose parents leave him "Home Alone" while away. No one has listened to Bob Seger the same since this one. Cruise is truly good in this one. He manages to walk the line between a naive kid, with a lot to learn and the heart throb he evolved into in years to come. Rebecca DeMornay is sexy and captivating in the most memorable role of her life. The supporting cast is very good in this and it is well Directed for sure. This movie is one part Ferris Bueller, one part Home Alone, and 100% Tom Cruise. This one holds up.

So good. Even better than I remembered. Cruise really came into his own in the third act. A real star making role, obviously, and Rebecca DeMornay was stupendous. So hot. How she didn't become a star after this is anyone's guess. Booger. Balki. Phil Collins. Tangerine Dream - love on a train.

At the risk of sounding like an old man, they simply don't make em like this anymore.

When this film was released, it was during the time of the "teen sex comedy" craze. Films like Class and Porky's were all about seeing scores of horny teens in the most raunchy escapades possible. However, this film and Fast Times at Ridgemont High can be seen as more being a little more serious than the others. Risky Business is definitely a commentary on how greed can corrupt an individual and what the consequences can be. Also, the acting in this film, as well as Fast Times, is light years away from Porky's and all films like it and it will always be a classic parable.

Rebecca De Mornay at 21 is fabulous as the savvy call girl for any teen boy to die for -- or for that matter any red blooded male of any age. She enters the film gliding silently into the back yard entrance of his parent's off-the-lake Chicago house, and after speaking only a few words, something like "are you ready for me Joel", artistically slips off her demure little slip of a dress, back arched to him, one leg kneeled in the window seat, presses her bottom into him, silently invites him to take her, and then turns, melts into him, kissing him in apparent yielding passion. This is immediately followed by cut scenes to multiple positions in multiple locations around the house. It's a perfect male fantasy of what paid for wild but romantic sex might be like (however unrealistic). It's also undoubtedly Joel's (Cruse's) first time. What an initiation.

The movie never gets that hot again (although the scene enacting Lana's "thing about trains" gets close). But it does become increasingly interesting as a first rate coming of age flick. Actually, it's a bit more than that. It explores the tension between the self disciplined deferred gratification he and has friends have all been taught they need for upper middle class success, versus the let loose sexual and other risk taking he knows is out there, some other people are doing, and wishes he could get away with. How far can a nice upper middle class boy go without throwing it all away? That risky business is what the film is all about.

Tom Cruz is perfect as the dutiful but less than gifted "future enterpriser" high school senior who's always had to work a little harder and stick more to the straight and narrow to try to live up to his parents' expectations -- without quite getting there. Although he was about the same age as De Mornay when they made the film, Cruz looks and acts a thoroughly convincing boyish 16 or 17. De Mornay's Lana is an iconic bad girl hooker of the naturally toney and perhaps feeling variety -- although about the last we're never entirely sure. She remains ultimately an enigma, beyond Cruz's and our full grasp, but not beyond his connecting with. Sadly, her first major role was probably her best -- although certainly not her only good one.

Cruz may be "on the right track", but it's De Mornay's Lana who knows everything about sex, life, taking risks, and living on the edge. She seduces Cruz into turning his parents' home into a bordello, to tap the money to be made by mingling his kind of friends with her kind of friends for a night, while she is hiding out from her "manager", and he has been left to "act responsibly" while his parents are away on a business trip. The scene where the Princeton alumnus interviewer, whom his dad has contacted to try to help finesse his "not quite Ivy League transcript", comes to the house to interview Cruz on the night the bordello party is in full swing, is deliciously funny and at the same time full of nervous tension. Cruz's character is on the brink of disaster, and then in fact clearly has thrown away a good part of his future opportunities -- or has he?

It's a delicious movie -- especially for males raised in seriously high academic achievement oriented families. Every good boy would love to call a Lana sometime -- and get away with it.