Defining Favourites: Risky Business (1983)

Unlike most teen comedies of the 1980's, Tom Cruise's star-making vehicle is a dark satire about how capitalism preys on the American youth under the guise of the "time of your life."

image via Warner Bros.

• Directed by Paul Brickman

• Screenplay by Paul Brickman

• Produced by Jon Avnet, Steve Tisch

• Starring Tom Cruise, Rebecca De Mornay, Joe Pantoliano

• Running Time: 99 minutes

• Premiere Date: August 5, 1983

In the 1980’s, American cinema saw a wave of teen comedies ranging from films like Fast Times at Ridgemont High, The Breakfast Club, or Revenge of the Nerds. But in that wave are also films like Risky Business, which took a perfect setup for any teen comedy before you realize the existential doom of entering the adult world. In fact, Paul Brickman isn’t so much interested in the creation of a teen comedy in that same manner, but it’s a comedy about the way that teenagers can see themselves entering the adult world. All of which might be the perfect setup for a great movie about the Ronald Reagan years of America, together with an increasing tide towards pushing children to embrace capitalism.

All of this starts simply enough: Joel Goodsen is a promising student who has his whole life ahead of him. His parents are incredibly wealthy, and he’s set on attending Princeton University as it was his father’s alma mater – to which he ends up taking part in Future Enterprisers, an extracurricular program for students who wish to create small businesses. Joel lives the dream that many teenagers would wish for, and it’s evident that he’s worked hard enough to get to where he is in life, but he’s also not immune to those same impulses that his friends drag him into. So of course, that would also take us into a sex-fueled fantasy as many male teens would experience, but Paul Brickman’s intent is to deconstruct the origins of these definitions of satisfaction and freedom as teens come of age.