Risky Business (1983)

Editor's Note Joel Goodson (Tom Cruise, in one of his earliest roles) is an average high school senior, apprehensive about starting college, especially with his average test scores. He decides to spice up his last high school summer by taking advantage of his parents being away and throwing a non-stop party. The next thing he knows his house becomes the local brothel thanks to the kind hooker played by Rebecca DeMornay and everything turns out differently from what he planned.

	Nicholas Pryor
	Bronson Pinchot
	Rebecca De Mornay
	Richard Masur
	Tom Cruise
	Raphael Sbarge
	Joe Pantoliano
	Curtis Armstrong
	Paul Brickman - Director

Joel Goodson is the type of teenager who makes his parents proud: he's nice, handsome, intelligent, and even principled. But when Joel's parents leave town for a few days, a series of events occur that will change Joel's sheltered life. For starters, he meets Lana, a hooker who proceeds to deflower our young hero, and then suggests he turn his home into a house of prostitution for one evening. Joel agrees, and just as sexy hookers and randy guys turn Joel's house upside down, a representative from Princeton University arrives, to interview Joel! How Joel handles this and other crises (losing his dad's Porsche, the loss of all his furniture, falling in love with a prostitute) will alter Joel's life forever. Variety
"...Appealingly personal and humorously observant....[The] premise is provocative, and [the] storytelling is approached in a manner that often proves fresh and unpredictable..." 07/27/1983

Total Film
"...Morally dubious, effortlessly charming..." 08/01/2003 p.129

Entertainment Weekly
"It's the film that first put Cruise in sunglasses and lit up his 500-watt grin." -- Grade: B 10/03/2008 p.59

New York Times
"Mr. Brickman's film was and remains a strikingly original combination of biting satire and moody, romantic reverie." 10/06/2008

Total Film
4 stars out of 5 -- "RISKY BUSINESS stands out from the pack of '80s sex-coms....A wish-fulfilment yarn with a sense of irony." 11/01/2008 p.149

Empire
4 stars out of 5 -- "RISKY BUSINESS might well be the smartest teen satire ever made....The capitalism is tempered by great performances, real raunch and a terrific Tangerine Dream score." 12/01/2008 p.212