![[box cover]](../../reviewimgs/r/riskybusiness.jpg)
Risky Business
Joel Goodson (Tom Cruise) feels the weight of his future pressing down on him. An average preppie high school senior from upper-middle-class Chicago, Joel is prey to all of the typical teenage urges — mainly, to be irresponsible and get laid. But he can't indulge. The subject of fastidious parents, Joel has trouble letting go without fear of consequence. Left alone at home for a week, however, Joel — at the stern urging of his hedonist friend Miles (Curtis Armstrong) — lets down his guard, and in the process learns some invaluable lessons about risk, capitalism, and the art of pimping. Enigmatic writer-director Paul Brickman, who pops out of obscurity once every six or seven years to write or direct a movie, takes what should've been a lewd teen comedy and crafts a mature, hilarious piece of entertainment which plays like raunchier companion to The Graduate. Cruise proves he's an excellent actor (despite the hype that would engulf him in three short years with the release of Top Gun), and Rebecca DeMornay is sly and sultry as the call girl who throws his life into tumult. Although not a perfect film, Risky Business is one you'd like to put in a time capsule to represent the culture of the '80s. Tangerine Dream's moody snyth score became the soundtrack for horny teenagers for the rest of the decade. Presented in 1.85:1 widescreen or pan-and-scan, and Dolby 2.0. Trailer, textual supplements. Snap-case.
—Gregory P. Dorr
