American Made Review
R: language throughout and some sexuality/nudity
Universal Pictures, Cross Creek Pictures, Imagine Entertainment
1 Hr and 55 Minutes
Dir: Doug Liman | Writer: Gary Spinelli
Cast: Tom Cruise, Sarah Wright, Domhnall Gleeson, Jayma Mays, Jesse Plemons, Lola Kirke, Caleb Landry Jones
INTRO: NO! I’m mad at you Tom Cruise! You put me through hell with that Mummy reboot shit in June. You can’t go from being an action star to regular actor again. Wait. You got Doug Liman to work with again? In a biopic? Gah! Er! FINE! I’ll give you a chance to redeem yourself.
Barry Seal, a TWA pilot, is recruited by the CIA to provide reconnaissance on the burgeoning communist threat in Central America and soon finds himself in charge of one of the biggest covert CIA operations in the history of the United States that spawned the birth of the Medellin cartel and eventually almost brought down the Reagan White House with the Iran Contra scandal.
THE GOOD
LIMAN CAN LEVITATE STORIES
To make a biopic like this tell every point of the story it needs to, Liman does an excellent job presenting this story through quick shots and fast edits as it breezes through the dull elements of any given. It's not done in the Edgar Wright style we're all used but more through his own fast edits.
This movie is ‘Narcos’ meets ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ and I love it. Barry is the Jordan Belfort of the CIA where he leads a crazy successful life filled with money and drugs. He has a fast minded attitude about everything and go..What makes me like this more than ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ besides its significantly shorter running time is it's more of its style of filmmaking for the narrative. What I love about ‘American Made’ is how Liman takes this story that occurred during the 70s through the 80s and presenting his narrative in a documentarian style. There are plenty of moments where this story is presented as a home video for a lot of the framework is shown through handheld that makes you feel immersed into Barry’s crazy life as it feels authentic to the time of when all of these events take place.
Another thing about the cinematography that I love is the color palette Liman chooses with each country Seal travels to. In America the film has a natural grainy quality but whenever Seal travels to Mexico,
It always looks like sunrise whenever Seal is in Mexico but most of the time it isn't yet everything is still yellow but it's so visually beautiful to look at.
CRUISIN FOR A FUN TIME
See Tom Cruise; it doesn't take an action film to make you entertaining to watch. Just be in a good movie with people you know will bring the best out of you. You already have the charisma to carry a film all you just need is the right material and its here! This is the second time Cruise collaborated with Doug Liman on a project, and he delivers one of the best performances of his career since Jerry McGuire. Its normal to have Cruise to be charismatic but this is the first time where he feels more like a character than just Tom Cruise. With Barry you have a stealthy opportunist who tries his best to keep everything under control even when things go out of hand.
THE BAD
FAST PACE; LONG LENGTH
Though the movie runs at a fast pace especially with how quickly edited it is, its speed starts to wear thin after a while. It has many sequences of insane events that progress the story, but by that time it starts to get tiring with how much adrenaline the film has. Other than that, this has to be one of the craziest biopics I’ve ever seen. and the first time it flows in a consistent tone. It doesn’t get dull, to always.
WELL AT LEAST YOU HIRED SOMEONE RIGHT?
The real Barry Seal has absolutely no physical resemblance to Cruise at all. If you look up pictures of him right next to Cruise you can barely see how the two look alike. Seal is much chubbier than Cruise and that is kind of a problem. It's not shown at the end of the movie (for obviously good reasons) but you shouldn't look until after viewing the movie. Thankfully it's not as jarring as Ben Affleck and Tony Mendez. Now that is strange.
LAST STATEMENT
American Made’s creative style of storytelling along with the bond between Cruise and director Liman makes this biopic one of the best movies of both Cruise’s career and the year.
Rating: 4.5/5 | 94%
Super Scene: Barry’s Landing.
