Review of Risky Business (1983) by Gordon T — 14 Apr 2010

I remember reading a review for this in VIDEO TIMES MAGAZINE when I was in sixth grade and the reviewer seemed to have been trying to "read in" to every line of dialog as though the dialog was some sort of DNA for the entire plot of the movie, ha ha ha ha.

The guy in VIDEO TIMES wrote that when LANA said "Are you ready for me, Joel" Lana was actually asking Joel if Joel was ready to go from teenager to adult from being irresponsible and dependent to becoming responsible for his actions.

Even being 12 Years ld and reading that review of RISKY BUSINESS in VIDEO TIMES MAGAZINE, I knew that some film-criticism is straight "over-written" crap.

I saw RISKY BUSINESS when I was 12 in the movie theater in OAK BLUFFS, MARTHA'S VINYARD (or is that EDGARTOWN) . . .27 YEARS AGO (things are soooooo different now, yet kind of the same).

Yes, there is an overall motif to RISKY BUSINESS that transcends all other Teen Comedies of that era, but treating lines of dialog as though they are all allegorical to the plot of JOEL'S advancement to adulthood seemed ridiculous.

I like to think of the suburbia depicted in RISKY BUSINESS then (in 1983) in contrast to the suburbia depicted in AMERICAN BEAUTY and TRAFFIC (and THE TRANSFORMERS MOVIES) of today.

Since 1983, AMERICAN suburbia seems to have EVOLVED into a greater self-consciousness and a greater self-awareness. Like, in AMERICAN BEAUTY, as opposed to RISKY BUSINESS, both parents were working and the husband (LESTER BURNHAM-Kevin Spacey) was overshadowed by his wife (Annette Benning) and seemed so milquetoast in the film's beginning.

In RISKY BUSINESS Joel's father (Nicholas Pryor-who also portrayed Julian Wells' father in LESS THAN ZERO), as opposed to the Lester Burnham character, is very much in control of his home and how he wanted the equalizer of his stero configured to reveal "less bass" . . .

And the parents in RISKY BUSINESS are over-concerned about their son's SAT scores while the parents in AMERICAN BEAUTY are in an utter state of disconnect with their child.

The mother in RISKY BUSINESS (Janet Caroll), had basiically no character yet the mother (Annette Benning) in AMERICAN BEAUTY was so "effusive of character" she nearly seems to "EXPLODE" while walking in the rain with the gun to the house towards the end of the movie.

(in contrast--in AMERICAN BEAUTY the neighbor's mother (Barbara Fitts--ALLISON JANNEY) seemed to be a gross-caricaturization of the the Mrs. Goodson (Joel's mother) character in RISKY BUSINESS: zero character . . . sub-zero character--she only seemed to be sitting at the pristine table, seen "doing absolutely nothing" while at least Joel's mother in RISKY BUSINESS had some say-so in the movie).

In Risky Business, the entire "motif" of the film was about the characters trying to position themselves in the best position to "MAKE MONEY" and then in AMERICAN BEAUTY we see the characters as "empty people" trying to find connection with themselves and with each other after having whittled-away their lives CHASING MONEY and losing themselves via self-absorption in the process.

In TRAFFIC, the parents are so self-absorbed they are almost non-existent in their child's life.

RISKY BUSINESS, AMERICAN BEAUTY, and TRAFFIC seem to collectively document the DEATH and DECAY of THE AMERICAN DREAM in AMERICAN SUBURBIA.

It funny, I grew-up in an affluent Western-Suburb of Philadelphia in the 1980s and the TANGERINE DREAM soundtrack of RISKY BUSINESS and the THOMAS BNEWMAN scores for AMERICAN BEAUTY and LESS THAN ZERO nail "the Suburban Mood" on the head . . .

Back Then where I lived you could go three days without seeing anybody but your parents--the houses had and still have HUGE YARDS and are very spread-out . . .

SUBURBIA in the 1980s felt like the AMBIANCE found in TANGERINE DREAM and THOMAS NEWMAN soundtracks.

SUBURBIA disconnects "you" from The World. And RISKY BUSINESS is about The World (GUIDO, LANA, VICKIE) "creeping into the OTHER-WORLDLY SUBURBAN life.

SUBURBAN-LIFE really is "The Mellon Patch" . . . and judging from the progression of films:

RISKY BUSINESS.

LESS THAN ZERO (to an extent).

AMERICAN BEAUTY.

And TRAFFIC.

The American suburban life has molded into a Rotten Mellon Patch.