Paul Brickman makes teenage desire funny and uncomfortable by keeping money in view. We recommend Risky Business for that sharp writing, though his concern for its prosperous young hero sometimes softens the satire.
Fi1m perspective
When Joel Goodson hires Lana in Risky Business (1983), Tom Cruise makes the boy look anxious to complete the transaction correctly. We felt uneasy because his wish to get it right makes paying for sex seem like another task to be mastered. Brickman, who wrote and directed, keeps Joel's curiosity and fear of embarrassment close together. The film is funny and worth an evening, but the attention it pays to the money changing hands is what makes it worth discussing afterwards.
He began in screenwriting, with Handle with Care (1977) among his early credits, and made his directing debut with Risky Business. Only one further feature followed as director, Men Don't Leave (1990), starring Jessica Lange. His subsequent work was chiefly in scripts, including the miniseries Uprising (2001), co-written with Jon Avnet, before he directed the short Allison (2012). We come back to the debut for the care with which he lets adolescent conversation expose adult priorities.
Joel's curiosity about sex and the pressure on him to succeed start to sound much the same in Brickman's dialogue. Cruise leaves room for awkwardness without making every mistake an appeal for affection; Rebecca De Mornay gives Lana enough composure to resist being simply the boy's reward. Tangerine Dream's electronic score adds a dreamlike, nocturnal atmosphere, helping Brickman give this teenage comedy an unsettling tone. The pleasure is there, and so are the prices and questions of status that keep interrupting it.
The reservation is how much more room Brickman gives Joel's worries than Lana's. De Mornay suggests concerns beyond him, but the film remains too busy fretting over his prospects to explore them. Its gloss can also make the comfortable life it examines look like something we are meant to want. There is nothing wrong with sympathy for a foolish teenager; there is something limiting about letting his fear of trouble count for so much. Start with Risky Business, and watch what De Mornay does with the attention she gets.
Biography
Paul Brickman is an American screenwriter and film director. He was born in Chicago, Illinois, on 23 April 1949 and raised in suburban Highland Park. He graduated from Claremont McKenna College.
Brickman began his career writing screenplays for The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training (1977) and Handle with Care (1977). He made his directorial debut with Risky Business (1983), which he also wrote. His other directing credit is Men Don't Leave (1990), which he co-wrote. He wrote the screenplays for Deal of the Century (1983), True Crime (1999) and the miniseries Uprising (2001), and directed the short film Allison (2012).
