cult film freak: TOM CRUISE IN THE SUBURBAN-CLASS SEX-COMEDY 'RISKY BUSINESS'

Tom Cruise in RISKY BUSINESS Year: 1983 Rating: ****1/2

Tom Cruise's first big moment where females took worldwide notice was from RISKY BUSINESS, during the now legendary lip-sync-dancing-in-underwear to Bob Segar's Old Time Rock N' Roll...

And ironically, his Joel Goodman was dancing alone as a high school virgin with no girls around after his parents left on vacation, filling meantime on his first night of freedom — and for Cruise, that's acting...

Tom Cruise and Rebecca DeMornay in RISKY BUSINESS

In-between losin' it to high-priced call girl Rebecca DeMornay... a sublime combination of ingenue and tomboy... and running a party brothel from that same upper-class suburban home, are some of the best moments (including surreal dream sequences) in an obscure writer/director's first of only three features...

And Paul Brickman means BUSINESS, literally, the plot suited to the 1980's culture of money and status, providing Cruise one of his best, most natural and subtle roles — without working up the superstar energy to reach the kind of mainstream climax that occurred in everything post-TOP GUN...

Tom Cruise in RISKY BUSINESS with Curtis Armstrong & Bronson Pinchot

In one early scene, Cruise's Joel tells DeMornay and comic relief buddy Curtis Armstrong (when not with mellower sidekick Bronson Pinchot), after getting away from scene-stealing pimp-villain Joe Pantoliano in his dad's expense vehicle, "Porsche, there is no substitute," which sums up RISKY BUSINESS itself: a glistening, gleaming, streamlined and sophisticated take on the 1980's sex comedy...

But not without traces of 70's drive-in exploitation with a little crime-thriller thrown in, progressed into a fantastical techno score by Tangerine Dream, particularly befitting steamy vignettes deliberately similar to an MTV music video (with tunes ranging from Phil Collins, Jeff Beck and The Talking Heads) — and yet the more down-to-earth human stuff, during both the high and low times, matter most since RISKY is far more character than sexually driven.

Sarah Partridge and Tom Cruise in RISKY BUSINESS

BONUS INTERVIEW SELECTION: In RISKY BUSINESS, actress turned jazz singer SARAH PARTRIDGE played Kessler, who in one scene is basically one of the guys, discussing which college each is going to... and next she's part of Tom Cruise as Joel's dream fantasy, interrupted by a nightmare situation: so we asked Sarah about that dream sequence after asking if that was in fact the same character...

SARAH PARTRIDGE: That’s Kessler on the kitchen table! Fun fact; there was a whole scene leading up to that one where Kessler is standing at the top of the stairs and says “I think I’m in the mood”. Then there’s a giant make out scene before getting to the kitchen table. It was cut but oh so fun to shoot! Thanks for reaching out!