American Made
In his best performances, Tom Cruise often gives off the impression that he’s getting away with something. Whether it’s Frank T.J. Mackey in Magnolia or Maverick in Top Gun, the 55-year-old actor burrows deep into his characters’ ability to hustle, scam or charm all those around him. The men he portrays are almost always full of shit, but because it’s Cruise playing them, they’re also very fun company. There are many reasons he’s been a movie star for decades, but that might be among the most crucial: No matter how cocky or ridiculous he or his characters can be, we don’t mind being taken for a ride.
The true-life drama American Made is powered by Cruise’s catch-me-if-you-can spirit, exuding a showy, impish disposition that’s sometimes grating but often enticing enough that we forgive its limitations. Aspiring to be Goodfellas but more closely aligned with American Hustle’s manic irreverence, the film has a doozy of a story to tell, and so naturally it would have been far more effective if it had simply told its story rather than endlessly marveling at its own madcap absurdity. And yet, Cruise buoys American Made’s flop-sweat intensity because he seems to understand his character’s desperate, ingratiating whirligig restlessness from the inside. This is that rare time that one of his slick charmers lets you see behind the curtain—and what a fascinating sight it is.
Cruise plays Barry Seal, who from the late 1970s until the mid-1980s lived an incredible life—not that he could tell many people about it, mind you. A TWA pilot enjoying a lucrative side hustle by smuggling Cuban cigars along his commercial routes, he’s busted by Schafer (Domhnall Gleeson), a CIA agent who offers him an alternative to prison: do reconnaissance for the U.S. government instead. Soon, Barry is zipping around South America under the guise of being the proprietor of a private-plane company, taking surveillance photos and, eventually, serving as a courier to America’s interests in the region. That would be enough excitement for most men, but the CIA doesn’t quite realize what they’ve unleashed, and once what will become the Medellin Cartel apprehends Barry and convinces him to transport drugs for them into the United States, it only ignites the man’s hunger for money and thrills.
Barry talks to the camera through a series of camcorder-recorded confessionals, but these interludes don’t provide a peek into Seal’s rationale or philosophy. One of the elements of Cruise’s performance that’s so appealing is its commitment to render Barry as opaquely as possible. Always calm under pressure, always able to flash the pearly whites at the first sign of danger, Barry could be Jerry Maguire or Mission: Impossible’s Ethan Hunt if they had no shame or moral code. The whiff of decency that Cruise’s characters normally possess—or come to discover in themselves—can’t be detected in American Made, and the nakedness of the portrayal wouldn’t be so enticing if it wasn’t Cruise playing him. The bulletproof star we’re used to seeing in M:I and Jack Reacher is stretched and strained as Barry tries to juggle competing interests while facing myriad plot twists and shifting allegiances.
American Made was directed by Doug Liman, who first worked with Cruise on the underrated action-thriller Edge of Tomorrow. They seem to encourage a risk-taking attitude in one other, and where Edge of Tomorrow was a playful, witty summer blockbuster, American Made consistently tries to puncture the self-importance of the crime-drama biopic by emphasizing the rollicking, life-or-death stakes of Seal’s everyday existence. Shooting on what’s meant to appear to be different film stocks and featuring a brazen collection of jukebox rock hits, the movie exudes some of the ironic, controlled experimentation of a Steven Soderbergh film, playing like a bizarre combination of The Informant! and Che. The rampant self-consciousness of American Made’s too-good-to-be-true storytelling never settles down, but Liman lets the rambunctious energy and blatant cinematic borrowing swirl so passionately that you get caught up in his and Cruise’s fervor.