Risky Business

Risky Business (1983) is the American comedy-drama you can watch online on iFILM that turned Tom Cruise into a star. Director Paul Brickman gave the world Joel Goodson — a straight-A Chicago suburbanite with a Princeton application in one hand and his parents' car keys in the other. The moment they leave for vacation, the careful façade starts cracking in the best possible way.

One phone call leads Joel to Lana, played by Rebecca De Mornay. What begins as a reckless night out escalates into a crashed Porsche, a furious pimp on the doorstep, an impromptu operation running out of his parents' house, and a Princeton admissions interview he somehow has to survive. Joe Pantoliano and Curtis Armstrong round out a cast that plays every escalation with perfect comic conviction.

Brickman's script is sharper than its reputation suggests — it is less a teen romp than a deadpan riff on ambition and the shortcuts people take to get there. Joel gets what he wants by the end. Just not in any way he planned. Stream Risky Business (1983) on iFILM.