Review of Risky Business (1983) by Stuart K — 23 Apr 2012

Written and directed by Paul Brickman, who before this had written The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training (1977) and Handle with Care (1977), this is a cool, episodic teen comedy-drama with a likeable and engaging lead, who was only 20 when he made the film, and it catapulted him into mega-stardom, where he's more or less remained ever since.

Joel Goodson (Tom Cruise) is a high school student who lives in a posh district of Chicago. His father (Nicholas Pryor) wants him to attend Princeton University, and Joel has been taking extracurricular activity at school.

However, his father and mother (Janet Carroll) go away on a trip for a few days, leaving Joel all alone in the house. Although Joel's friend Miles (Curtis Armstrong) feels that while Joel is all alone, he needs some companionship, and he hooks Joel up with prostitutes Jackie (Bruce A.

Young) and Lana (Rebecca De Mornay). Joel spends the night with Lana, but he ends up falling afoul of Lana's pimp Guido (Joe Pantoliano), and while Joel just wanted to unwind for a few days, things go from one event to the next.

It's a fun 80's teen film, like a more adult version of Ferris Bueller's Day Off, but this has a good score by Tangerine Dream throughout. Cruise was young and exuded coolness here, and his career was about to get better and better, this was a sign of better days to come.