[Review] American Made

Tom Cruise puts his aviator shades back on for American Made, a giddy cocaine-fueled crime-comedy of American Dream exploits and foreign policy loopholes.

Cruise plays Barry Seal, a commercial airline pilot living a banal existence. But that changes when he meets Monty Schafer (Domhnall Gleeson), a sketchy CIA agent who practically appears like a devil on Barry's shoulder and convinces him to quit his job and rake in the cash by transporting mass amounts of drugs and weapons. And that's exactly what Barry does.

There's a manic energy to the whole thing - think Reagan-era Wolf of Wall Street or War Dogs in the sky. The picture even has a daydreamy haze, as if the endeavor is one big binge of danger. A big greedy blur. And it all comes with a wink of self-awareness. It's definitely no secret that this is effed up stuff. But it's so crazy, that you just have to sit back and laugh at how crazy it actually is. Tom Cruise revels in this role, essentially playing an ecstatic and egotistical sleazebag. There's hardly a scene in the entire film where he isn't grinning ear-to-ear or where his eyes aren't flashing dollar signs.

But like all stories of this nature, what goes up most come down. The highest of highs plummet to the lowest of lows. And well, you know how the deal goes: Crime doesn't pay.

( 8/10 )

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